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Cbe fallacies of €bri$tian Science 




By 



3* G. mood 

IDemDer of CoreKa Bar. 



PBBas OF The Cavanaugh Primtiks Companv 

113 West Fifth Street 

ToPEKA, Kansas. 






UB«A8Y of GONurtEeS.^ 
I wo QoDies He<;($iy«j« 

JUL 24 ]^ua 

ULAS^ 4> XXc. W 
COPY a. 



fallacies of €bri$tian Science 

"Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures," by 
Mary Baker G. Eddy, is a volume of 700 pages, consisting 
of eighteen chapters with titles as follows : "Prayer,'' 
"Atonement and Eucharist," "Marriage," "Christian Science 
and Spiritualism," "Animal Magnetism," "Science, Theo- 
logy, Medicine," Physiology,'' "Footsteps of Truth," "Cre- 
ation," "Science of Being," "Some Objections Answered," 
"Christian Science Practice," "Teaching Christian Science," 
"Recapitulation." The Key is treated under three heads: 
"Genesis," "The Apocalypse," "Glossary," and the final 
chapter is "Fruitage." 

The preface, as usual with those who are iconoclastic, 
makes an appeal to thinkers by stating, "The time for think- 
ers has come," just as though the men and women who 
think have not been busy all along the line of Man's exis- 
tence on earth ! Architecture, sculpture, painting, works of 
art, literature, profane and sacred, are the indices of man's 
thoughts from generation to generation. Civilization with 
its train of benefits is largely due to the thoughtful men 
whose lives have the calendar of destiny. 

It is doubtful if any thought has been more prominent in 



2 The Fallacies of Christian Science-. 

all the ages of development, than that concerning the ''Birth, 
Life and Destiny of Man." In every age the Ego of thought 
has endeavored, not only to solve the mystery of life, but as 
well to understand its relationship with that power whom 
we call God. 

The author says : ''Sickness has been fought for centur- 
ies by doctors using material remedies ; but is there less sick- 
ness because of these practitioners?" She answers: "A 
vigorous 'No' deducible from two facts — the longevity of 
the Antediluvians, and the rapid multiplication and in- 
creased violence of diseases since the flood." 

Mankind is aft'ected by thousands of conditions now 
which were imknown in centuries past. Man has pene- 
trated the uttermost parts of the earth in recent years and 
subjected himself to many exposures which have resulted 
in physical disorders. These in turn produce others until 
physicians are bafiled in strenuous efforts to relieve human 
ills. But investigation goes on apace — conditions, symp- 
toms, medicines applied and treatments resorted to — until 
out of the multiplied experiences a specific remedy is dis- 
covered. At one time small-pox was a scourge ; there was 
no relief except immediate emigration; now, vaccination, 
isolation of patient and careful nursing, reduces mortality 
and the dread disease is stayed, often-times not affecting any 
except the single victim. The advancement of medical sci- 
ence and surgery has been marvelous. A profession which 
continually aims by every means at its command to prevent 
the spread of disease and thus limit the field of its own pecu- 
niary profit, is entitled to the respect and confidence of man- 
kind. Physicians have nothing whatever to do with the 
"multiplication and increased violence of diseases.'' That 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 3 

they do prevent much sickness and disease, assuage pain and 
assist nature in eradicating many ailments and restoring 
multitudes to health can be attested by thousands every day 
in all civilized lands. These works are not blazoned from 
the housetops, but have their proofs in the minds and grate- 
ful hearts at every fireside in the world. There are many, 
many failures, which must necessarily be as long as death is 
appointed unto every man. Sanitation, which Christian Sci- 
ence condemns, has brought health and cheer to plague 
spots. Cuba, the Gem of the Antilles, from being a menace 
to all sub-tropical commerce and habitation, has become a 
garden and health resort, with a mortality much below many 
of her more northern neighbors. The ponds and marshes 
in the lowlands about Memphis have been drained and pes- 
tilence and death no longer stalk unchecked in her highways. 
The beautiful City of Mexico, for centuries cursed with dire 
fevers, has at last installed a fine system of sewers under 
the direction of American engineers, and at once takes her 
place as the finest winter and summer resort on the conti- 
nent, vying with her sister, Orizaba, which is said to have 
an ideal climate. 

There are two stumbling blocks to many who are not 
Christian Scientists : The one is the "Fruitages" so-called 
of the Science, and the other is the fact so miany "good peo- 
ple" and ''intelligent persons" believe in and practice it. The 
"Fruitages" contained in the book are signed in each case 
with initials and then the name of some town or city and 
the state. Admitting, for the sake of argument, these cases 
to stand as related, a thousand cases of cures and improved 
health by the use as prescribed of patent medicines can be 
adduced for each "Fruitage" of Christian Science. Indeed, 



4 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

many cures of patent medicines are marvelous — human 
wrecks have been built up into models of physical strength 
and beauty. In these cases the full name is given, with 
street number and postoffice address, and oftentimes pho- 
tographs are thrown in. No account is here taken of the 
thousands of physicians who go daily up and down the earth 
dispensing relief and blessings to stricken humanity, with 
no boasting, denunciation, or trumpets proclaiming their 
prowess in the healing art. 

As to the number and quality of people who espouse 
Christian Science, it will not be amiss to state that recent 
statistics show only about 100,000 persons in the United 
States are adherents of the Science. This is not such a re- 
markable growth in about forty years since Mrs. Eddy dis- 
covered the Science in i(S66. A system revealed by God cer- 
tainly should have more disciples than i in 800 in forty 
years. But when one calls to mind the theories, systems and 
propositions that men have entertained, advocated and prac- 
ticed in the past, and even in our time, by all classes of men, 
it is not surprising that a comparatively few can be found 
who entertain the fallacies of Christian Science. 

There is no limit to what zeal in any cause, especially re- 
ligion, will lead men to say and do. In all ages men have 
suffered every conceivable outrage for a religious belief and 
"he has made countless thousands mourn" by persecuting 
his fellow man on account of some faith, which, if espoused 
to-day, would be conclusive evidence of insanity. A pope 
had the body of John Wy cliff e exhumed, burned and scat- 
tered on the stream near his grave. Could religious zeal 
and fanaticism have gone farther ? They have not changed, 
but toleration among men refuses to countenance persecu- 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 5 

tion by religionists of disbelievers, or heretics. 

When some one remarks the number and quality of good- 
looking, bright, intelligent people who are Christian Scien- 
tists as an argument in favor of its claims, he is advised to 
consider the people who are equally good^ooking, bright 
and intelligent who are not Christian Scientists, and who 
have no part or lot with them, and then multiply these last 
by ICO and }'ou will have the relative merits numerically of 
the cons and pros. This estimate counts out 700 of the 800 
which it will be conceded are wholly indifferent to the issue. 
Of course numbers count for naught when estimating the 
value of truth — one man has been right at times against the 
world. The above is only to show all the complimentary 
adjectives showered upon the pro-Christian Scientists are 
equally applicable to more non-Christian Scientists. The 
philosophy and the claims of Christian Science in the light 
of calm investigation and deliberate thought must be the 
basis of final judgment as to its merits. 

Having thus disposed of the two conundrums which 
trouble some, this discussion will be confined strictly to Mrs. 
Eddy's book, because she says it is the only authentic rec- 
ord of the Science, its theories and claims. 

A philosophy which overthrows all preconceptions of man 
and his relations to nature and nature's God should not only 
assert and negative, but should offer demonstrative proof of 
assertions and negations ; but this book fails to attempt any 
proof of a single dogma. Mrs. Eddy is the witness and her 
bare assertion the only evidence. A theory which is so dis» 
cordant with man's inner consciousness of daily experience, 
should certainly have something behind it except the reiter- 
ations and alleged impressions of a single, poor, frail mortal 



6 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

woman. One of the hardest propositions to meet with logic 
is a theory based upon unsubstantiated assertions. For in- 
stance when she says, "If you say so, the child can have 
worms,'' it almost challenges the mental soundness of one 
who makes such a declaration. Hereafter, if one in charge 
of children will keep her mouth shut, intestinal worms will 
vanish and the vermifuge bill will be saved. 

Referring again to the preface, she says : "Theology and 
physics teach that both spirit and matter are both real and 
good ; whereas the fact is that one is both good and real, and 
the other is its opposite" — that is, matter is bad and unreal. 
An unreal thing has no qualities. The existence of matter 
is denied throughout the book, and yet at page 240, "Arctic 
regions, sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds, mighty 
billows, verdant vales, festive flowers and glorious heavens, 
all point to the invisible intelligence above them." 

All these are material things — matter — so adjusted and 
balanced and adapted to man's comfort and welfare as to 
lift him to some slight appreciation of the Infinite Creator 
and All-wise Father. 

It is said Christian Science has passed through many edi- 
tions, each differing essentially from its predecessors. As 
propositions are assailed by critics and found untenable, the 
first opportunity is taken to modify, amend or omit the ob- 
jectionable feature. 

Mary Baker G. Eddy claims Christian Science to be a 
revelation from God to her. If so, why the frequent 
changes ? 

Was she authorized to change the revelation ? If so, what 
becomes of the Omniscient God ? Did he take her into part- 
nership ? Give her permission to create the dual deity as our 



The Fallaciet of Christian Science. 7 

"^Father-mother God! as she does in her paraphrastic in- 
terpretation of the Lord's prayer? What a blasphemous 
presumption to substitute a hyphenated hermaphrodite, our 
Father-Mother-God, for "Our Father;" 

"The time for thinkers has come/' she says. Thinkers 
have always been in time, and there have always been think- 
ers. If Eddy had said it is time for some people to wake up 
and begin to do a little thinking on their own account, she 
would have posed in a more m.odest attitude toward those 
who were thinking long before she was bom, and are still 
thinking. Not, perhaps, as she thinks, or thinks she thinks, 
but thinking, still. People should be scanned very closely 
who suddenly appear upon life's stage and hold aloft a ban- 
ner inscribed, "New Thought." "Free Thinking," "The time 
for thinking has come," and the like. 

That "Spirit is good and real, and matter is its opposite," 
1. e., bad and unreal. Matter can not be "bad and unreal.'* 
If "unreal" it is non-existent, and no quality can be assigned 
to that which has no existence. Christian Science, like its 
progenitor, Brahminism, denies Creation. Hence Eddy's 
effort, in the chapter of "Genesis," in Science annd Health, 
to give a spiritual interpretation to the Biblical account of 
the creation of the material universe. That plain, unvarn- 
ished account of the Creator's handiwork must be warped 
and twisted out of its significance in order that her allega- 
tion, "there is no matter" may have some plausibility. But 
she was unfortunate in besmirching Genesis that she did not 
apply her brush to Ihe numerous passages in the Old and 
New Testaments where reference is clearly made to the vis- 
ible things : 

David sings: "The heavens declare the glory of God; 



The Fallacies of Christian Sciences 



and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day 
uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge."" 
— Ps. XIX, I and 2. 

Again the prophet, Isaiah, says, "He that stretcheth out 
the heavens as a curtain." Is. XL, 22. 

Can I believe : "The drug does nothing, because it has nO' 
intelligence?" **It is mortal belief, not Divine Principle of 
Love, which causes a drug to be apparently either poisonous, 
or sanative." 

A mother administers a drug to her babe, believing it to 
be sanative. She has mistaken the bottle — the drug is 
deadly poison. The child is thrown into violent convulsions 
and dies in agony. ''Faith" and ''belief credited the drug 
as ''sanative," but the drug '^matter" came in contact with 
the living flesh of the child-matter and performed its deadly 
function. So with all drugs ; they have distinct entities and 
properties and will, under given environment, prove reme- 
dial, or the opposite. A thirtieth of a grain of strychnine 
is curative; a grain is death dealing. The concepts of Mor- 
tal Mind have nothing to do with the properties of drugs 
which operate upon living tissue-matter when brought in 
contact with it. 

Mrs. Eddy says, page 245. "This error of thinking that 
we are growing old, and the benefits of destroying that illu- 
sion, are illustrated in a sketch from the history of an Eng- 
lish lady, published in the London medical magazine called 
'The Lancet.' Disappointed in love in her early years, she 
became insane, and lost all account of time. Believing that 
she was living in the same hour which parted her from her 
lover, taking no note of years, she stood daily before the 
window watching for his coming. In this mental state she 
remained young. Having no consciousness of time, she lit- 
erally grew no older. Some American travelers saw her 
when she was seventy-four, and supposed her to be a young 
lady. She had no care-lined face, no wrinkles, nor gray 
hair, but youth sat gently on cheek and brow. Asked to 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 



guess her age, those unacquainted with her history conject- 
ured that she must be under twenty. This instance of youth 
preserved furnishes a useful hint that a FrankHn might have 
worked upon with more certainty than when he coaxed the 
enamored lightning from the clouds. Years had not made 
her old, simply because she had taken no cognizance of pass- 
ing time, nor thought of herself as growing old. The bodily 
results of such a belief that she was young manifested the 
influence of such a belief. She could not age while believ- 
ing herself young, for the mortal state governed the physical. 
Impossibilities never occur. One instance like the foregoing 
proves it possible to be young at seventy-four; and the pri- 
mary of that illustration makes it plain that decrepitude is 
not according to law, nor is it a necessity of nature, but an 
illusion which may be avoided.'' 

Comment. Birth, youth, manhood, old age and death fol- 
low each other in rapid succession and so uniformly that 
they become actual facts in human observation and experi- 
ence, and establish a universally recognized rule of natural 
action. Accompanying advanced age is greater or less de- 
crepitude mental and physical decline. A single instance is 
related above; admitting its verity, arguendo, the only one 
of its kind in all known annals of the human family, was a 
freak of nature, and ''proves" absolutely nothing as to the 
philosophy of oncoming age. Here was a poor, insane girl, 
unfortunate in love, so shocked at the unfaithfulness of her 
lover that she stood dumbfounded and nature stopped. Her 
mind and heart never rallied. She was crazed and saw but 
one image. Her thoughts were disordered, else she would 
have recovered; for her physical powers were normal up 
to old age. Her beliefs can not be adduced as agencies of 
her perennial youth. There is no evidence of her beliefs, 
and a mere assertion to that effect will not avail because ( i ) 
she was insane, and (2) the established rule is that all mor- 
tal and material things give evidence of decline and decay, 



10 The Fallacteb of Chribtian Scienge*. 

and (3) in the experience and observation of men of sane 
minds, no mere belief, for or against advancing age and phy- 
sical decline, can stay the inevitable. 

Question. Why did not this unfortunate girl rise to the 
dignity of the occasion, assert her womanhood and recall 
Irhe fact that there are just as good fish in the stream as ever 
were caught, as thousands of good girls have done before 
and since, select another lover, marry, and be a happy bride, 
a lovmg mother and devoted wife? Does Qiristian Science 
vouchsafe to girls who become crazed from disappointed 
love, perennial youth? 

But what shall be said of the mental calibre of the founder 
of a system of religious faith who will attempt to "prove" 
by a crazed freak, the only instance on record,, that "de- 
crepitude" is "unlawful," and is not "necessary ; and is "but 
an illusion which may be avoided?" 

Were it not that man's career on the earth from the dawn 
of civilization is strewn with so many wrecks of his beliefs, 
such reasoning as above would challenge human credulity. 
This is a charitable view to take of it. The other view the 
alienist may consider. 

A glimpse of Mary Baker G. Eddy's moral make-up may 
be had from a statement made by her private secretary, con- 
cerning the presentation to her by a Texan admirer, of a 
$6,000 span of horses. 

At first she decided not to accept for fear she "should not 
feel right to drive behind such handsome and expensive 
horses when I pass those who are perhaps suffering for the 
necessities of life." 

"Two things finally decided Mrs. Eddy to reverse her 
first decision," says the same authority. "The first was the 
desire of her coachman to 'try out' the magnificent pair of 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 11 



Kentucky thoroughbreds, and the second was her character- 
istic thoughtfulness of others — the fear that if she decHned 
absolutely his sumptuous gift, Mr. Temple might feel that 
his generous kindness was not appreciated." 

Out upon the ''thoughtfulness for the sensibilities of oth- 
ers," while she resided in a marble palace and declines to 
see many who seek her counsel. And "lest we forget" — 
a $2,000,000 church while thousands are starving spiritually 
for church privileges and ministrations, and that right under 
the eaves of the "Mother Church!" The desire of a horse 
driver to hold the ribbons over a spanking span of thorough- 
breds and her fear that the generous gift of her admirer 
might not be appreciated outweighed her regard for the poor 
who cannot ride in chaises and whom the Lord said, "Ye 
have always with you !" 
Some comments: 

Christ, the incarnate God, came as a Savior to a dying 
world — dying in sin, not physically. 

He did not come chiefly to avert and cure physical and 
mental ills of mankind — that was wisely left for man to 
study out for himself. 

Incidentally, He cured some of bodily diseases, but the 
main purpose was to impress the onlookers with His su- 
preme powers and that He was what He claimed to be — the 
Son of the living God. He came to turn men from sin to 
righteousness. 

Christ, the Apostles, and some who were specially en- 
dowed with the healing power, healed; but nowhere did 
either of them utter a word against the medical practition- 
ers of the times, nor against any school of medicine. Mrs. 
Eddy says, in Science and Health, as an argument for her 



12 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

system, "that they did not prescribe drugs, diagnose any 
cases, nor give names to any diseases." They did not need 
to do either of these : a command of God, or one of His ac- 
credited agents, would apply to palsy, or a fever, or a her- 
nia. ''Take up your bed and walk,'' "Stretch forth thine 
withered arm," are remedies of universal application when 
prescribed by Almighty God. 

If these had done otherwise, they would have been brand- 
ed as new-style doctors, may-be as quacks, or fakirs. Do- 
ing thus, they might as well have surrendered their commis- 
sions as saviors of men. 

Christian Science lecturers talk nothing but praise of Mrs. 
Eddy and her healing cult, while Christ and His apostles 
taught a system of religion which regenerates men and be- 
comes the only real and substantial and permjanent basis for 
individual and national righteousness. 

According to population and conditions existing at the 
time of Christ, there is no reason to believe there were few- 
er ailments among men than now. Word of mouth was 
the only method of communicating events in those days. 
The spreading of the good news of Christ's redemptive plan 
was no exception. The news had to go from mouth to 
mouth, from village to village, city to city, province to prov- 
ince, empire to empire, and the story must be reinforced by 
supernatural power to impress the common people and have 
them heed the ntessage. The moral teaching of Christ to 
the salvation of the souls of men from the bondage of sin 
was the burden of His holy mission ; the healing of the sick 
was incidental and evidential. 

It is necessary, as a principle of moral economy, that man 
should learn to care for himself, mentally and physically, the 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 18 

underlying principle being, as John Wesley said, "Cleanli- 
ness is indeed next to Godliness" — this in its broadest sig- 
nificance. 

History furnishes proof that man must care for himself 
with the means given him by his Creator. Epidemics sweep 
thousands into untimely graves, simply because proper san- 
itation has been ignored. Infection poisons the air and 
forthwith the microscope and chemical laboratories get busy 
endeavoring to discover causes and remedies. If remedial 
agencies were at the beck and call of some weird incanta- 
tion, the earth would soon be depopulated. Let the fathers 
and mothers generally adopt the healing system expounded 
in Mrs. Eddy's Science and Health, and delay the ministra- 
tions of those who know how to care for babes until it is 
too late, as Christian Scientists do in many cases, and the 
generations of men will perish. 

Loving care, sanitation and careful medication have saved 
many a babe; pow-pows, never. Experience and observa- 
tion submitted to the crucible of logic and judgment, 
through the ages, have taught mankind much in regard to 
the science of his health and the remedies for disease. 

"Science and Health, or the Key to the Scriptures," claims 
to be a revelation from God — a system of healing which sets 
at naught all known science of health, rules of sanitation, 
and preventive medicine, and yet Mrs. Eddy proclaimed only 
last spring (1905) that owing to the prevalence of diptheria 
and the limited knowledge of Christian Science in relation 
to such diseases, her apostles should comply with the laws, 
rules and regulations of sanitation as prescribed by boards 
of health in city and state. These sanitary regulations ema- 
nate from "mortal minds'" which, according to Mrs. Eddy, 



14 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

are "error." She denounces sanitation. Would she repeal 
ordinances requiring clean alleys, vaults and streets ? 

These are all material things and have to do with mat- 
ter, as man calls it to distinguish it from spirit, simply for 
convenience; yet Mrs. Eddy says "there is no matter." A 
Topeka healer, of the Christian Science persuasion, after 
practicing Christian Science on a poor, weak, emaciated, dy- 
ing victim — a woman, for a number of weeks, directed the 
nurse to give her patient some rhubarb to relieve her bowels. 
Why did not the Christian Scientist cure the woman after 
the manner of Christ, and do it quick ? All other medical 
men had pronounced the case hopeless, and as a dernier re- 
sort. Christian Science should have given her new organs 
and made a whole and sound woman out of a physical wreck 
— ^but she died. 

Christ, in all His precepts, beatitudes, Sermon on the 
Mount, dialogues with His disciples, and discourses with 
the people, addressed the mind of man through his eyes to 
see and his ears to hear. In all His philosophy, the mind is 
addressed. "Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." 
Here is a mental condition — the possession of charity — 
cotemporary with a condition which boasts not of its char- 
ity — 'love. 

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth," is the 
command of Christ, clearly implying — 

There are earthly treasures — real entities which have val- 
ue, but man should not set store by them, but rather by 
treasure in heaven — evidently spiritual treasures, where 
thieves break not nor steal. Here Christ clearly distin- 
guishes between earthly and spiritual treasures — ^between 
matter and spirit and their relative value in the economy of 
man. 



The Fallacies of Christian Scientce. 15 



Christian Science says, "all is spirit and perfect." Page 
475 — "Man is incapable of sin, sickness and death, inasmuch 
as he derives his essence from God, and possesses not a sin- 
:gle, original or underived power. Hence the real man can 
not depart from holiness ; nor can God, by whom' man was 
evolved, engender the capacity, or freedom, to sin. A mor- 
tal sinner is not God's man, for the off-spring of God can 
not be evil." 

This is a "false concept," of Mrs. Eddy's "mortal mind," 

of man, his capabilities, and his relation to God, the Father. 
If true, Christ's mission was useless; and God in "reveal- 
ing" the "Key of the Scriptures" to Mrs. Eddy must have 
repented the mistake of nineteen centuries ago. 

Page 480 — "God, or Good, could never make men capable 
of sin." That some men are good and others are bad, goes 
without saying. The bad men must be capable of sinning, 
or they could not sin. 

Page 487 — "And there is really no such thing as mortal 
mind." Science and Health reiterates repeatedly that "Mor- 
tal Mind is error." Tf "no such thing," how can that 
"thing" be denominated "error?" 

Page 489 — "Corporeal sense defrauds, lies, cheats — will 
break all the commands of the Decalogue to meet its own 
demands." True. But in the next sentence she asks — 
"How then can this sense be the channel of blessings or of 
understanding to man?" 

Man is prone to error as sparks fly upward ; but not every 
act of even a verj^ bad man is morally bad. Bad men do 
good acts, and good acts bring reward to the doers. 

When Christ comes into man's life as instructor, guide 
and Savior, the sense becomes "the channel of blessings." 
It is the same sense, but is, by the transforming power of 
faith, repentance and baptism, in harmony with the eternal 
verities. 



16 The Fallacies of CHRiBTiAisr Scieitce". 

Christian Science masks in the verbiage of Christianity, 
but in its philosophy and logic it is essentially anti-Chris^ 
tian and unscriptural. Instead of being "A Key to the 
Scriptures," unlocking the mysteries of revelation, it mysti^ 
fies otherwise plain propositions. If a person really desired 
to get a clear insight into Bible doctrine, let him read the 
Bible and interpret it according to his own honest judgment ;^ 
learned or unlearned, he will have a vastly better vision of 
God and Christ and their relations to man than if he reads 
Christian Science. 

Very many words in the language which are used in crit- 
icising books can be safely employed against Mrs. Eddy's 
Christian Science or the Key to the Scriptures. It is in- 
consistent, illogical, egotistical, self-assertive, non sequitur, 
misleading, unphilosophical, irreverential, anti-Christian 
and false. The crowning fallacy of the nineteenth century. 

It is nothing more than a hodge-podge of odds and ends 
of ancient religions and philosophies, including Platonism 
with its denial of the existence of matter, and Brahminism 
with its denial of creation. It masks its anti- Christ and un- 
scriptural dogmas under the nomenclature of Christianity 
backed by an alleged revelation to Mary Baker G. Eddy. 
God save the mark! 

The Bible is a revelation and Christ is the central figure. 
The commands and precepts of that Book have been verified 
in the experience of mankind since it saw the light of day. 

Mrs. Eddy claims her book to be a revelation to her. This 
claim has no evidence to sustain it except the allegations oi 
the author. 

On the contrary, the Bible contains prophecies which have 
been fulfilled to the letter long after utterance by the proph- 



The Fallacies of CHRrsTiAN Science. 17 

•ets. Modern research has substantiated the Scripture of 
centuries agone. Further the Bible and its lessons of re- 
proof and precepts are — 

1. Consistent with man's mental, moral and physical well- 
being. 

2. It appeals to his ^'Mortal Mind" for examination and 
endorsement as stepping stones to spiritual growth. It 
urges cleanliness — mental, moral, spiritual and physical. 
Christian Science (page 175), ''When . . . less thought 
is given to sanitary subjects, will there be better constitutions 
and less disease?" From what immediately follows in the 
same paragraph — "In old times who ever heard of dyspep- 
sia, cerebro-spinal meningitis, hay-fever and rose cold?" it 
is rightly supposed the interrogation should be answered 
in the affirmative. The sanitation of Cuba has made it safe 
to visit the Queen of the Antilles. Sanitation has estab- 
lished the lines of Memphis in pleasant places. Quarantine 
prevents infection and contagion. Personal health and 
strength are the concomitants of the bath. 

a. Why another revelation so at variance with the Bible? 

b. and that to an unknown and insignificant person ? 

c. and why so contrary to the things we know through 
and by our God-given senses? 

d. and if so, why thus deceive man? 

Christian Science denies sin, ''because God could not cre- 
ate sin, which He must have done if it exists.'* 

God created the science of logic and His supreme power 
is limited by logic. He created man a little lower than the 
angels, endowed him with free will and set before him good 
and bad. Speaking reverently, God was compelled by the 
logic of the situation to give free-will to man; else, man 



18 The Fallacies of Christian Sciencit* 

would have been an automaton. And in this creative en- 
dowment, man has his highest and best developmjent ; in his 
choice of the best promises of the Creator he attains heaven. 

*To say^ "I can, but will not," presents to man the acme 
of all good, or the depths of degradation. 

Gold is in the unseemly rock, but man's genius and pa- 
tince reveals the pure and most precious metal. So man, un- 
seemly as may be, with his will attuned to the Divine pre- 
cepts as revealed in the Bible, and with patient loyalty to 
his Creator, brings out the best in himself. 

With this endowment of free-will, man has the possibil- 
ity of sin; but to say, "God could not create sin, and there- 
fore there can be no sin," does violence to the God given 
senses of every morally responsible being. Sin exists and 
it began somewhere, and it is the prime cause of all of man's 
discomfitures. Two individuals alone in all the universe can 
be responsible for the existence of sin. If God is eliminated, 
man must be accountable. Sure enough, man commits all 
(he sin, then it must logically originate in him. But how? 
Through the "carnal" side of his mind which is at enmity 
to God. The argument and conclusion here presented is 
consistent with all true philosophy. 

"The statement that the teachings of Christian Science 
are absolutely false, and the most egregious fallacies ever of- 
fered for ^acceptance' is an opinion wholly due to a misap- 
prehension both of 'the principle and practice of Christian 
Science and to a consequent inability to demonstrate that 
science."' (Page 355.) 

A person may misapprehend, but it does not follow that 
he is unable to demonstrate. Misapprehension arises from a 
variety of causes, neither of which proves inability to un- 
derstand and demonstrate. The science may be at fault ; the 
teacher may be unable to impart instruction in such a way 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 19 

as to lead to an intelligent view of the science. His appa- 
rent misapprehension may really be an ability to winnow the 
chaff of "falsehood" and "fallacy" of Christian Science 
teaching. 

This is a peculiar book. It offers its claims to its readers, 
and if they do not appreciate and understand it, they are sim- 
ply disabled mentally. It is incumbent on those who ad- 
vance a new doctrine to so explain its teachings and pre- 
cepts that there shall be no honest misapprehension. 

"Christian Science," Mrs. Eddy says, "must be accepted 
at this period by induction. We admit the whole, because a 
part is proven, and that part illustrates and proves the en- 
tire principle." A very dangerous logic that proof of part 
proves the whole! 

But further she says, "Christian Science is not discerned 
from the standpoint of the human senses, only by the illumi- 
nations of the spiritual sense, can the light of understand- 
ing be thrown upon this science, because it reverses the evi- 
dence before the material senses." (Page 461.) 

Christian Science has dug its own grave. Every phil- 
osophy must first address itself to the material senses — to 
the intellect. Faith, repentance and baptism is the order in 
which Christian regeneration is addressed to man. First, 
he must believe something — an act of the intellect ; second, 
he must repent — change his course of conduct, go the other 
way, the Lord's way — an act of will; baptism, an outward 
manifestation, an earnest of the two first. Spiritual growth 
comes of loyalty to God and His precepts. God created the 
material senses and has not authorized any Science, nor sys- 
tem of morals, which "reverses the evidences before the ma- 
terial senses." The scriptures constantly appeal to the hu- 
man senses, the resultant of which may be summed up in 
the observation and experience. These conclusions are ver- 



20 The Fallacies op Christian Science, 



ified by the following statement in the succeeding para- 
graph : 

"If you believed you were sick should you say 'I am! sick ?' 
No! Mortal, material sense might answer, yes; but these 
senses do not report the truth of your being. ... To 
admit you are sick, renders your case less curable. . . . 
To prove scientifically that disease is unreal you must men- 
tally tin-see the disease and then you will not feel it, and it 
is destroyed." 

Page 460 — "Sickness is neither imaginary nor unreal — 
to the frightened, false sense of the patient." Here again, 
the material senses are overruled and condemned. 

His senses may frighten the patient, but there can be no 
such thing as a "frightened sense.'^ Such reasoning would 
be in a bad way if a patient should be found, who wTien sick 
should exhibit no fear, as in thousands of cases, especially 
among children. 

Page 459 — "Any attempt to heal mortals with erring mor- 
tal minds, instead of resting on the omnipotence of the di- 
vine Mind, must prove abortive." 

Then there is such a thing as healing mortals? Of 
whatr It must be sickness — ^but Christian Science asserts 
there is "no sickness !" "Erring mortal mind" of the phy- 
sician has numerous cures and healings to his credit and he 
applies himself diligently and energetically to his patients, 
believing that God helps those who help themselves. Many 
self-respecting physicians retire when they learn that Chris- 
tian Science Healers are busy with the patient and predicate 
further attendance upon the case, on the absolute absence of 
that class of healers from the patient. In this, they are wise. 
The Christian Scientist says the patient is not sick ; the phy- 
sician says he is what mankind calls sick. Choose ye be- 
tween them! Both cannot be right. The material senses 
attest the correctness of the physician's diagnosis. Can it 
be that God — "Good," as the Christian Scientist affixes to 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 21 

the name of the Eternal One, has given His creatures eyes 
to see, ears to hear, nerves to discern by touch, taste and 
smell, a mortal mind with power to judge and a will to exe- 
cute, and yet all is ''illusion" and deceit ? He has not treat- 
ed the animals thus — their God-given instinct, when left to 
themselves, is unerring. Why should the miaterial senses of 
man, the crowning act of creative genius, be illusory and 
deceptive? There are '"illusions," "deceits," "hallucina- 
tions," "hysteria,'' "hypochondria," "paranoia" and "mel- 
ancholia" which the sane "mortal minS" regards as certain 
indices of unsound "mortal mind." 

An esteemed official associate said of his cousin who is a 
Christian Scientist, "I have known her since childhood and 
nothing has ever ailed her except the 'hypo.' Such may be 
benefited by a change of mental diet — something to think 
about besides themselves — something to suggest attention 
besides climbing hills before they reach them, crossing 
bridges before getting to them, filling the air with hobgob- 
lins which may devour them, seeing ghosts in every dark 
place. If such are improved in mind and per consequentia, 
in body, by espousing Christian Science, well and good ! 

This does not logically concede the efficacy of Christian 
Science as a remedial system, for it will be remembered that 
it claims to be the only legitimate system of healing (God 
ordained) including surgery. Once establish a cure of dis- 
ease by any other method or system, and Christian Science 
is discredited and its claim is deceptive and false. It is sug- 
gested that anything else equally as startling as Christian 
Science might accomplish the same alleged result, without 
challenging the accumulated wisdom of the ages, and re- 
versing the natural sequences. 



22 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

Dr. Barlow, surgeon of Gen. Butler's army during the 
Civil War, who was practicing at Parkersburg, W. Va., re- 
lated the instance of a young woman, whom he was called 
to see. She had gone to bed and no inducement could per- 
suade her to get up and yet nothing seemed to ail her. The 
doctor diagnosed the case thoroughly but failed to find any- 
thing wrong physically. He concluded the trouble was 
mental, prescribed some innocent drug and deft her with 
promise to return the following day. He remarked to her 
brother as he rode away, "Sarah will be all right, if she 
can be forced to get out of bed." The next morning the log 
house took fire at the comb of the roof near the chimney. 
A little boy left with Sarah while the men went to the fields 
to work, observed the fire and immediately notified Sarah, 
who jumped out of bed, grabbed a bucket of water^ mounted 
a ladder and up to the burning and had the blaze extin- 
guished before the men reached the scene, and in less time 
than pen can describe the incident. The doctor was grati- 
fied to learn upon his second visit that Sarah was all right, 
and he said, "She was never in bed a day after that." A 
clear case of hypochondria which called for some startling 
incident, or shocking thought, to arouse to energetic action. 

The "marvelous fruitages" of Christian Science would 
certainly enlist the deepest interest and the most profound 
thought which precluded a disposition to melancholia or 
hypo. The restoration of a daughter in one night to sound 
health from the last stages of consumption ; the lifting of a 
patient to bodily strength and health from sinking in the 
last stages of typhoid fever by administering a teaspoonful 
of water with a grain of salt every three hours. Mrs. Eddy 
offers this incident to show the inefficacy of the "drug^' and 
then jumps to the conclusion that the Divine was the healer 



The Fallacies of Chribtia'n Science. 2B 

— enabling a mother to bear a child without suffering and 
walk around the room the first day thereafter and feel as 
strong and well as ever ; lengthening a boy's leg which was 
congenitally ^ort — cure a tumor of twelve years' standing 
after many surgical operations — curing chronic inflamma- 
tion of the stomacli, heart disease, catarrh, the tobacco and 
liquor habit, all affecting the same individual at the same 
time — restoring a fellow who had a * 'siege of disease"— 
healing of one afflicted with numerous ailments, "rescuing 
two physical wrecks" — ^girls "afflicted with catarrh, female 
trouble, lung and throat trouble, neuralgia, rheumatism and 
indigestion," are "fruitages" of which any system of heal- 
ing may be proud. But the repeated failures of Christian 
Science healers are not related, nor will they be. But so^ 
ciety is shocked frequently by a death which from all human 
testimony was the direct result of persistent refusals of the 
Christian Science healers to secure the timely aid of a phy* 
sician. A short time since a beautiful young mother of 
Coffeyville, Kansas, went to an untimely grave simply for 
want of proper care and treatment at the right time. But 
her own faith in Christian Science and that of her family 
refused a physician's aid until forty-eight hours after the 
first throes of childbirth. The physician was powerless. It 
was too late. 

Mrs. Eddy says, page 402, "Christian Science is always 
the most skillful surgeon, but surgery is the last branch of 
its healing to be acknowledged. However it is just to say, 
that the author has already in possession well authenticated 
records of the cure by herself and her students, through 
mental surgery alone, of dislocated joints and spinal verte- 
brae." 

Modern surgery has made a marvelous record in the 

last twenty-five years, but it has not reduced any disloca* 



24 The Fallacies of CHRiBTiAJf SciEscEi' 



tions, nor put in place spinal vertebrae, by mental nor spir- 
itual pow-wows. The claim of Mrs. Eddy must be ad- 
mitted,, or denounced, as false. The latter is preferred,. 
Surgery has always beea a stumbling block to all forms of 
mental and spiritual Sieallng. All the founder of Christian 
Science couW do was to report progress and back £t up with 
personal experience and allegations about documents in her 
possession. Why are these documents disclosing achieve- 
ments of Christian Science in surgery more sacred thant 
the reports of healings in diseases innumerable? Such a 
proposition forces the searcher for the truth to be silent, or 
ques^tion the existence of such evidences. 

Page 4 : "Audible prayer can never do the works of spir- 
itual understanding." 

Christian Science insists upon silent prayer as the only 
effective prayer ; this would abolish prayer in public service, 
except after the manner of the Friends, or Quakers, whose 
prayer seasons in public meetings are silent. 

Luke xxiii, 35-34: "W^hen they were come to the place 
called Calvary, then said Jesus, Tather, forgive them, they 
know not what they do/ " 

And again, subsequently, in the 46th verse, Jesus cried 
with a loud voice, 'Tather, into Thy hands I commend my 
spirit." 

Again, on the Mount of Olives, kneeling He said : "Fath- 
er, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me; neverthe- 
less, not my will, but Thine be done." Luke xxii, 42. 

In the 44th verse, "And being in an agony, he prayed 
more earnestly, and His sweat was, as it were, great drops 
of blood falling down to the ground." Evidently this was 
audible prayer. 

Here is some warrant for audible prayer, and presum- 
ably audible prayer, in public, with right motives and in 
proper spirit can not be successfully questioned. But one 
thing it is assured, whether in secret behind a closed closet 
door, or in the meeting for public worship, prayer will not 



The Fallacies or CHRrsTiAN Science* 25 



he answered unless the petitioner works for the consum- 
mation of the things asked, where such action is practi- 
cable and necessar}\ Prayer puts the one prayitig- en rap- 
port with the Father of all good, but He helps those who 
help themselves. 

But prayer alone, without the doing of all in humtin 
power to help one's self, or others, will not avail. 

One of many similar cases is related as follows: 

Philadelphia, Feb. 4, 1906. — That little Grace Bates, 3 
years old, had been permitted to die of typhoid fever with- 
out the slightest medical care, was the testimony to-day, at 
the inquest of her father, Daniel Bates, and the Rev. Am- 
brose Clark, assistant pastor of the Faith Tabernacle. Both 
were arrested and held without bail. 

"The men swore that they had knelt for many hours at 
the bedside of the child and prayed for her recovery. It 
was brought out by the Coroner that the men had prayed 
while the tot was in a delirium. Practically all the child 
had received from the time her illness became dangerous 
was water. Bates and Clark said they believed firmly in 
the efficacy of prayer, and that they had looked for Grace 
to rally. 

'The father was arrested on a charge of criminal negli- 
gence, and the clergyman was held as an accessory. They 
protested against their arrest, saying they had done all that 
they felt necessary for the child. Bates and the clergyman 
are members of the church of Christ. Bates was greatly 
distressed over the charge against him, and said that he haa 
followed his convictions in praying for the child." 

There is no doubt that many a devoted and loving miother 
with a prayer unceasingly on her lips for her fevered babe, 
is sustained and strengthened with buoyant love and hope 
in her strenuous ministrations in behalf of her child. But 
with all this she does not neglect the good physician's direc- 
tions and prescriptions. The child recovers and there is 
joy and gladness in all hearts. But should the child die, 
there is supreme satisfaction in the reflection that every- 



26 The Fallacies op Christian Sciebtcev 

thing was dowe that mortal ken could suggest to save the 
little one. 

No one could guarantee the life of Grace Bates ; but mor- 
tuary statistics do^ show a very large and constantly increase 
mg percentage of cures in all cases of typhoid fever, and 
she was certainly from every human and Divhie standpoint 
entitled to the very best in modern science,, especially when' 
her helpless babyhood hung in the balance. Such infamous 
pow-wows merit the severest condemnation of public sen- 
timent, which should be crystalized into a statute making 
such conduct an offense, a high degree of manslauhter^ 
if not murder. Like conduct with similar results, on the 
part of any one, be they Christian Scientists, Divine Heal- 
ers, Mind Healers, Faith Curists, or what not, should be 
put in the same category. 

A person fires a pistol upon a crowded street and kills 
some one, he is guilty of murder in the first degree; pro- 
vided he knows right from wrong. The act under the cir- 
cumstances implies malice aforethought, the principal in- 
gredient of the crime. 

The Haymarket bomb throwers never have been found, 
but those, who by newspaper and magazine articles incite 
persons to do violence to their fellows, were tried, convicted 
and executed for the Haymarket killings. The convictions 
were sustained by the Supreme court of the United States, 

Here, in the case at bar, is a system of physical healing 
strenuously presented in books, magazines and pamphlets 
and some persons are led to believe and adopt it. Their 
private beliefs are not in question; nor their practices, if 
confined to their own ailments and infirmities. But when 
they pursuade unsuspecting parents to forego a physician's 
care when innocent children are sick, and from all the evi- 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 27 



dence they might have been saved by proper medication 
and nursing; or induce adults not to call a physician until 
*Hoo late," and it can be shown that nothing was done ex- 
cept a pow-wow, or "silent" argument, or verbal argument 
having in view the convincing of a patient, sick with a vio- 
lent attack of diptheria, for instance, that his "mortal mind" 
was in "error" when it brought the disease upon him, and 
that all he has to do is to believe that disease is nont-existent 
and he will be made whole again, and death follows, the 
parties promulgating such ideas and practicing such an al- 
leged curative art should be held accountable at law for the 
direct results of their teaching and practices. 

It is to be hoped that the death of 3-year-old Alice Bates 
from typhoid fever will be avenged to the full extent of the 
law upon her father and a faith-cure preacher, who did 
nothing to relieve the little one, except to indulge in prayer. 



ebristiAii Science. 



"The popular conception of Christian Science fails to 
make light the hearts of the fanatics. H. Cornell Wilson, 
for instance, is the head of the Publication Committee of the 
order in the state of New York. He states: 'Imagina- 
tion seems to be the sole foundation for the conception of 
those writers who criticise Christian Science without even 
a pretense of having a demonstrable understanding of this 
subject; and Christian Science can only be said to be under- 
stood by those who demonstrate its verities.' " 

Is it not within probabilities that some of the "writers" 
who criticise Christian Science," invoke more than "Imagi- 



28 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

nation ?" Have they not given thought, judgment, reasoning 
power and conscience to their work, and are not many of 
them entitled to honesty of purpose, as much at least as 
Mrs. Eddy, whose book is full of "imagination," and that 
too against principles and facts established over and over 
again in the daily observation and experience of men? 

^'Christian Science can only be . . . understood by 
those who demonstrate its verities." Therefore if you can- 
not demonstrate its verities, you cannot "understand" it. 
This reverses the natural order of intelligence upon any 
subject. Demonstration by those who understand a subject 
leads to belief, faith and understanding in others, and pre- 
cede them. Again, those who assert are logically bound to 
prove, or stand condemned. What are the verities of Chris- 
tian Science ? The book. Science and Health, certainly does 
not "demonstrate" any "verities." Not even the alleged 
"fruitage" is demonstrative of Christian Science; because 
similar and equally as remarkable cures are credited to 
patent medicines; and regular physicians are continually 
performing wonders in the medical art among men. 

If Christian Science healing "demonstrates its verities" it 
may be said Christian Science does not always relieve, nor 
heal, but frequently fails to the scandal of modern intelli- 
gence. Victims of Christian Science die where good care 
and a regular physician would have saved them. 

mth is migbty. 



"Piety and religion are as far apart as the Arctic and 
Antarctic poles. Truth has no quarrel with religions, which 
are as numerous as the trees of the forest or the sands of 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 29 



the sea. Every man according as he purposeth! "It is the 
knowledge of TRUTH (God revealed in Christian 
Science") says Mr. Wilson, ''which enables its followers to 
forsake evil and prove man's freedom from sin (and the 
ravages of disease) and degrading appetite and passions." 

The same may be said of Christianity barring the "rav- 
ages of disease," which as a philosophy and regular factor 
in the lives of men, was known and read centuries before 
Christian Science was revealed to Mrs. Eddy. Christian 
Scientists are not exempt from the "ravages of disease" any 
more than Christians, nor is there any guaranty to this 
effect in any religious system. 

It is a singular fact that all systems of religious faith, 
since the advent of Christianity, have masked in its habili- 
ments and emasculated its precepts. 



no tbempeutic Ualue. 



Mr. Wilson adds : "Christian Science is not a mere sys- 
tem of therapeutics. WTiy give currency to the absurd view 
that by imagining one is not ill or that an empty wine glass 
is full, sickness is overcome, or the habit of drinking de- 
stroyed? We plainly teach that from a human standpoint 
the sin, sickness and suffering comprised in mortal experi- 
ence are very real, but from the demonstrably true point of 
view maintained by Christ Jesus these unharmonious con- 
ditions have no reality, since all that is real is spiritual and 
perfect. Evil is therefore the product of false material 
sense, which is annulled or destroyed by spiritual under* 
standing." 

How can "mortal experience" be "very real" and yet have 
no reality ?" Be and not be at the same time ! Where and 
when did Christ Jesus teach, preach, or demonstrate, by 
word or deed, any such philosophy, as implied in these in- 



30 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

terrogations ? He never denied that any one was sick ; He 
did not deny the man was dead whom He restored to life. 
If Christ had made any such propositions to the people, 
they would have had good cause of complaint against Him. 
On the contrary, while He assailed their philosophy, He 
demonstrated His system by parables from familiar things, 
so that the common people gladly heard Him', "while the 
chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused 
Him." Pilate having examined Him said : "I find no fault 
in this man, teaching those things whereof they accused 
Him." 

Sin is very real in its immediate and remote effects ; has 
a "reality'' which is the most stupendous fact in the en- 
tire round of man's activities; even following him into 
eternity. The Eternal Father, the Maker and Preserver of 
the Universe, considered sin so "real" and so much of a 
"reality" that He sent His Own Son, to open the way by 
which man can be reconciled to God. The plan of salvation 
was sealed with His blood upon Calvary — ^the most tragic 
drama in all human history. All on account of the "reality '^ 
of sin, which has been, is now, and will be, the relentless foe 
of man and nations of men, until all things shall be put 
under His feet. 

Christianity is striving with the "realities" of sin and 
slowly but surely is reclaiming the waste places and plant- 
ing men's feet on the rock. 

In view of the history of remedial agents which have 
claimed the attention of mankind in the past, it is the bald- 
est presumption for the promoters of any system to claim 
superiority and attempt by any methods to have other sys- 
tems discarded. Human observation and experience are 



The T'allacies of Christian Science. 81 

the only tests of remedial agencies and their results. Yet 
Jthese are not absolutely reliable. The element of coincid- 
-ence in many cases of human ailment can not be reckoned 
Avith any degree of certainty. A person is sick ; he admin- 
isters some prescribed remedy and is cured. The sudden 
cessation of pain in some diseases is as quick as the attack 
— rheumatism for instance. Just before the pain is relieved 
a drug is taken, or some patent medicine ; or perhaps some 
new physical manipulation is tried, and coincidentally there- 
with, the disturbance is quieted. From that time forth the 
patient is loud in his praise of the medicine, healer, or 
what-not, which apparently effected the cure. Perhaps he 
never has anc4:her attack, so that particular cure must be 
made to do duty on all occasions when any one is simi^ 
iarly affected. No other case is like it and the efficacy of 
the remedy has not been noted in a single other case. The 
truth was that the lotion, or the applications, were admin- 
istered coincidentally with the flight of the ailment, and 
actually effected nothing. 

It would be foolish to deny the efficacy of medicine, 
nursing and proper diet in the restoration of the sick to 
health and strength. The evidence is overwhelming and 
cannot be gainsaid. Many a wise mother knows the prop- 
erties of the herbs and lays by at the proper time the winter 
store of pennyroyal, hoarhound, sage, hops, and catnip for 
teas and syrups for coughs, colds, and other minor ailments 
incident to the winter season. The mother's jimipson salve 
and a father's beech bark salve for cuts, bruises and local 
inflammations are recalled. A negro mammy of early youth 
was a cyclopedia of the properties of the herbs of the field 
and the leaves, barks and roots of shrubs and trees, and 
thousands attested her skill in allaying pain and curing 



82 The Fallacies of Christian Sciencev 

disease. She was an angel in disguise. 

My Grandmother Ruth Wood, in the early days in Vir- 
ginia, was accustomed to ride horseback for miles through 
unbroken forests, to attend the sick. Without any medical 
education, with no knowledge of schools of medicine, but 
with a mind stored with common sense and a knowledge of 
herbs and their properties, and a heart full of love and 
sympathy, she went up and down the sparsely settled pion- 
eer settlements comforting, caring for and medicating the 
afflicted until her name was a synonym of beneficence. 
Thousands of mien and women all over Christendom to-day, 
with a certainty of observation and experience added to the 
natural endowment, are calming fears, quieting nerves and 
relieving distress, whose hearts and minds are alone attuned 
to humanity's cry for help. 

The influence of mind on the body is a doctrine as old as 
the first lispings of medicine as a science. Breathing ivS 
unconscious, as a rule, but can be temporarily stopped by 
will. Muscles lie dormant until the mind summons to 
action. Thought is controlled by will-mind directing mind. 
The successful practitioner of medicine always aims to in- 
spire his patient with hope and confidence of ultimate re- 
covery. Loss of these on the part of the sick is looked 
upon as a dangerous sympton, but stoutly maintained con- 
tributes to well being. The woman who cured neuralgia 
by carrying a potato in her pocket was a "faith curist." 

Christian Science teaches, "Mortal mind is the acknowl- 
edged seat of human motives. It forms material concepts 
and produces every discordiant action of the body." (Page 
239) "The head, heart, lungs and limbs do not inform us 
that they are dizzy, diseased, consumptive or lame. If this 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 33 

information is conveyed, mortal mind conveys it" (page 
24^), for the reason, ''Matter cannot carry on such teleg- 
raphy." 

A person, unknown to you and of whose presence you 
are wholly unaware, pricks you in the back with a pin. 
There is sudden pain whose "discord" the mind did not ori- 
ginate nor ''produce.'' The plain truth is, the sensitive 
nerve, pierced by the pin, conveyed the sensation of pain, 
""discord," to your mind, and without seeing the act or 
actor, the mind, clearly defined the nature of the act and the 
instrument by which it was accomplished. The nerve is 
what man calls live matter and is endowed by the Creator 
with properties consonant with its function. Christian Sci- 
ence reverses the natural order and has the nerves dead and 
useless instead of the guardians of man's well being and 
happiness. The mind does not bedizzen the brain. Indi- 
gestion, nervous disturbance, overwork, worry produce con- 
ditions which beget a whirling brain. The nerve becomes 
conscious of it and conveys the information to the brain 
and the man is aware of the "discord." 

C;bri$tUN Science and medecine* 

(Page 146) 



"The ancient Christians were healers." The ancient 
Christians, as a body of believers, were not healers. Christ 
and the apostles had the power of healing, and others espe- 
cially chosen, notably the seventy, but there is no authority, 
in profane or sacred history, to support the claim that Chris- 
tians en masse, by virtue of their Christian faith, were em- 



84 The Fallacies of CHRisTrAN SciENCEr. 

powered to heal. Healing the sick, raising the dead, or 
other so-called miraculous action, and conferring the power 
to heal, were always done as an evidence of Dtvine power,, 
or that the person working these wonders was divinely 
commissioned. Jestis> during His early ministrations^, 
"healed all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease 
among the people." He became famous throughout alt 
Syria and He healed all sick people, taken: with divers dis- 
eases and torments, those possessed with devils, lunatics 
and the palsied. (Mat. iv, 23, 24.) The evident purpose 
was to spread widely His fame. He had' a great work to da 
m a short time. Later in this work miraculous healing de- 
clined in number, and after His ascension, the power to heal 
the skk passed out — except as to His disciples, still living 
— Paul for instance. 

Mrs. Eddy admits this when she enquires, "Why has this 
element of Christianity been lost?" No other elemlent has 
been lost. Faith, repentance and baptism are still with us. 
The Golden Rule and the beatitudes have wider exemplifica- 
tion in the lives of men to-day than ever. Then why should 
this element— healing — have been lost ? Mrs. Eddy gives as 
the reason "Our systems of religions are governed more or 
less by our system of medicine ; the first idolatry, was faith 
in matter." How could this be? Mrs. Eddy denies re- 
peatedy the existence of matter. 

"The schools (of medicine) have rendered faith in drugs 
the fashion, rather than faith in Deity". (Eddy.) 

Science, as distinguished from theology, has kept up a 
warfare against the superstitions and errors of men, but no 
system of medicine, nor any other scientific systemi, has 
ever undertaken to "govern" or control "systems of re- 



The Fallacies op Christian Science. 35 

ligion." On the contrary, every system of science, includ- 
ing medicine, has been tabooed by the church ; those think- 
ers who have dared announce new propositions and new 
discoveries in the field of natural science have been de- 
nounced and in many instances martyred, rather than re- 
tract. 

Again, if God intended and it was a part of His plan of 
salvation that the "power to heal" should be an element of 
Christian equipment, why should He permit it to fall into 
disuse and be lost? And the greater wonder is, why, after 
two thousand years. He should reinstate the power by a spe- 
cial revelation to Mrs. Eddy, whose book, the medium 
of communication to the world, is running over with rank 
errors from end to end. 

There came a time when Christ's mission on earth was 
ended; the apostles had preached the gospel up and down 
the earth ; and the necessities for the evidence of the mirac- 
ulous had passed. The plan of salvation was submitted to 
man along with the evidences of its authority, and no heal- 
ing power was bequeathed as a legacy, because, 

1. The necessity had passed. 

2. The reason for it no longer existed. 

3. Such a power would have become dangerous to con- 
fer on man in his weakness and multiplied temptations. 

Christianity was destined to set men right in his relation 
to his God, to lift him out of bondage to sin and plant his 
feet on the rock of salvation and save his soul. If granted 
such power, the whole system would have speedily degener- 
ated into a scramble for lucre — the price of healings — just 
as Christian Science promoters do in these modern days. 

Like Simon who saw the money which might be made 



36 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

by having the Holy Ghost, coveted it and offered money to 
Peter for it. (Acts viii, 18-20.) Peter rebuked him be- 
cause he, Simon, had thought 'The gift of God may be pur- 
chased with money." 

The work of the apostles and those upon whom the power 
of heaHng was conferred seems to have been preeminently 
that of founding churches and upholding them by supernat- 
ural power especially bestowed for that purpose: the office 
ceased as a matter of course with its first holders ; all con- 
tinuation of it from the very conditions of its existence. 

A distinction is noted between the instruction of Christ 
before and after His resurrection. 

Before, He said to His disciples, go ye into all the world 
and preach the gospel and heal the sick. 

After, He made no reference to healing the sick, but 
preaching and baptizing those who believed were His only 
command. 

The distinction is broad and significant. He said on the 
cross, "It is finished," and now His last will and testament 
to those who saw Him just before His ascension was to 
preach the gospel to every creature and baptize believers. 
So say Matthew, Mark and Luke. 

From His ascension to the present time Christians have 
preached the good news and baptized believers, pushing 
the sacred work into pagan lands as fast as men and means 
would justify, until the banner of the cross and its Divine 
victim have circled the globe and will eventually "put all 
things under His feet." 

Now, some friend may be ready to ask, what of the 17th 
and 1 8th verses of the last chapter of Mark? where be- 
lievers 'shall take up serpents ; and if they drink any deadly 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 37 



thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the 
sick and they shall recover." 

Beginning with the 9th verse and ending with the 20th 
verse, while credited to Mark in the ordinary versions of 
the scriptures, they seem to bear internal evidence of a de- 
parture from the sacred dignity which characterized the 
closing hours of Christ on earth. In Sawyers' translation 
of the New 1 estament, the verses referred to here are sepa- 
rated from the rest of the chapter and under 9 sub-head 
"An addition by an unknown writer." As agair-* the de- 
tails of Christ's last hours, by Matthew, Luke and John, 
His own disciples, it is not creditable that a man "unknown" 
for 1,900 years should have heard anything of the kind. Is 
it possible that Christ, who came to establish a spiritual 
kingdom in the hearts of men, should at the last give a 
blank commission to all those who believe in Him to become 
snake charmers, immunes from poisonous drinks, and fak- 
irs? Certain it is, sane Christians have never preached 
much less practiced such arts. Belief on Him and baptism 
are the bases of His kingdom and not vain shows, danger- 
ous indulgence and legerdemanic manipulations. Such 
"signs'' following them that "believe," instead of contribu- 
tions to man's moral and spiritual growth, would be degrad- 
ing, and He who spake as never man spake would have 
been known only to history. 

"Our Master healed the sick . . . and taught it to 
His students, but left no rule for demonstrating this prin- 
ciple of healing and preventing disease." "This remained 
to be discovered through Christian Science." (Page 147.) 

Faith, repentance and baptism, cardinal tenets, elements 
of Christian doctrine and faith, each has been explained, 
illustrated and demonstrated by miracle, parable, dialogue 



38 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

and philosophical discourses, but the "Dtivine principles" of 
healing, an "element of Christianity" has been "lost" and 
"remained to be discovered by Christian Science" in 1866, 
A. d! 

An "element" is a fundamental thing, or part of a thing. 
Christ's power to heal and that conferred upon the apostles 
and a few others consisted of words of command. The Chris- 
tian Scientist has no such power, nor, as far as known, does 
any one of them claim such a power. However, in accord- 
ance with the discoveries of Christian Science as revealed 
and interpreted in Mrs. Eddy's book, Science and Health 
($3.50 each), the reader may learn the healing art. And if 
not able, after reading this book to understand and appre- 
ciate Christian Science, as therein expounded, and demon- 
strate its truth, it is simply an evidence that the mind is 
deficient in capacity, so says Mrs. Eddy. The only instance 
in all the annals of bibliography, where an author chal- 
lenges the mental caliber of the reader! 

Page 368: "That life is not contingent on bodily condi- 
tions is proven, when we see that life and man survive the 
body." 

At the time of what the world calls "death," what the 
world calls "life'' departs from out the material body. Chap- 
ter XV, I Cor., 38 verse, et seq,, reads: "There are also 
celestial bodies, and bodies terrestial. . . . It is sown a 
a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. ... In a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for 
the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incor- 
ruptible, and we shall be changed . . . and this mortal 
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass 
the saying that is written . . . Death is swallowed up in 
victory. O, death, where is thy sting." 



The Faxlacies or Christian Science. B^ 



This is briefly Paul's philosophy of life in the body, death 
of the body and immortal life. Mrs. Eddy takes issue with 
Paul. Choose ye between them! Man sees certain condi- 
tions of the human body and with unerring certainty, pre- 
dicts resulting death, when animation, life, shall cease. 
Bodily conditions exist which will cause life to perish. 

Mrs. Eddy says : . , . "When we see that life and man 
survives this body. That man has an immortal part which 
■survives is a belief almost universal. No one has seen this 
change, and therefore immortality cannot be predicated o£ 
man's sense of right." 

Again she says: "Because matter has no consciousness, it 
cannot act ; its conditions are unreal, and these false condi- 
tions, the source of all seeming sickness. Admit the exis- 
tence of matter, and we admit that mortality (and therefore 
disease) has a foundation in fact." 

Here again the founder of Christian Science denies the 
existence of matter. Processes are going on in the human 
body continually of which the individual is wholly uncon- 
scious. He hears nothing, sees nothing, feels nothing, many 
men know nothing of these hiultifarious processes, yet they 
go on and on and the result is what man calls a living body. 
In the babe, wholly ignorant of anything connected with its 
existence, matter is at work according to the law of its 
action and all the natural processes are working in harmony 
and the result, observable to every one, is a healthy, grow- 
ing child. 

Page 370 : **A physical diagnois of disease — since mortal 
mind must be its cause, if it exists — generally has a ten- 
\lency to induce disease." 

By what operation can any sound mind formulate such a 
proposition? It is too absurd to need reply! 

The same remark will apply to the following declaratory 
statement contained in Science and Health : 

"Matter cannot be sick." (Page 372.) 



4<& TaE FAiiLAciEg OF Chribtmn Science'^ 

''Anodynes, counterirritants and depletion never reduce' 
mflammation, scientificany ; but the truth of being, whis- 
pered into the mortal mind will^ bring relief." (Page 374. > 
What is "truth of being" as a curative agency? Anodynes^, 
ebuntcrirritants and depletions do reduce inflamationv 
whether "scientifically" or not is not known noE cared about^ 
so long as the good result is assured. 

"Heat and Cold are products of minxl. . ^ . Nothing; 
that lives ever dies, and vice versa." (Page 374.) 

"Palsy is a belief that attacks mortals^ and paralyzes the 
body, making certain portions of it motionless." 

Christian Sc'ience remedy — "Destroy the belief, show 
mortal mind that mtiscles have no power to be Jost, for mind 
is supreme and you will cure palsy." This means mortal 
mind. 

Christ's plan: "Stretch forth thy withered hand! Matt 
ix, 2, "Son be of good cheer^ thy sins be forgiven thee."^ 
See also 6th verse. 

"If the body is material, it cannot for that reason, suffer 
with a fever/' (Page 376.) 

Christian Science remedy, "The efficient remedy is to 
destroy the patient's unfortunate belief, both silently and 
audibly arguing the opposite facts in regard to harmonious 
being, representing man as healthful instead of diseased, 
and showing that it is impossible for matter to suffer, to 
feel pain or heat, to be thirsty or sick. Destroy fear and 
you end the fever." 

How will any one argue "silently" with one stricken with 
fever? Christ's "remedy for fever" and when Jesus was 
come into Peter's house he saw his wife's mother laid and 
sick of a fever. And he touched her hand and the fever 



The Faxlacies of Christian Science. 41 



3eft her. Matt, viii, 14-15. 

What "belief" the patient entertained is not known ; what 
argument *'silent or audible" was adduced, the record is 
.silent. No discussion was entered upon to show that "mat- 
ter cannot suffer.'' He simply "touched her hand and the 
fever left her." Furtlier comment is unnecessary. 

The trouble with Christian Science is, if it cannot cure in 
its one way, there can be no reHef, while medicine is ready 
to adopt any remedial agent which promises relief to human 
jlls. 

Preface, page x. 

Speaking of books on mental liealing which are mere 
plagiarisms from "Science and Health, or Key to the Scrip- 
tures," Mrs. Eddy says: 

"They regard the human mind as a healing agent, where- 
as this mind is not a factor in the principles of Christian 
Science." 

Must not the human mind be first addressed by the words, 
works or prints of Christian Science ? Must not the crav- 
ings of the human mind for more light on Christian Science 
be satisfied continually through the mind's agencies for 
obtaining knowledge of and fortifying its beliefs? Does the 
'"human mind" not become a factor in Christian Science? 

It certainly is an important, if not the leading factor, in 
everything that pertains to man. 

In the "Fruitage" of the Christian Science, a person 
claims to have quit the use of tobacco and whiskey by read- 
ing Christian Science. Many men can testify to discard* 
ing the poisons before Christian Science was known to man, 
and even after the "revelations" to Mrs. Eddy. A man is 
of little worth who cannot quit a bad, dangerous and wicked 
habit by will power. Were the "revelations" so-called ad- 



4f The Fae-iacies ot Christian SeiENCEii- 



dressed to Mrs. Eddy's "mortal mind" which she over and 
over again d^nounees as ^'error?"" 

Her phiiisophy needed the ciaitn of ^Vevelation'' fronn 
God tb make it imp^ressrve, otherwise it w©ald have ap-- 
pealed to deaf ears. She was equal to the emergency but 
there is no external nor internal evidence that the systems 
was revealed to her — nothing- except h^er assertion. The* 
claim woitld be more plattsible if it was the frst timie the 
promoter of some infamous system of religion appealed to* 
Divine authority. 

Page 127 : "Christian Science eschews what is called nat- 
ural science, in so far as it is built on the false hypotheses 
that matter is its own law gWer, that law is founded ons 
natural conditions, and that these are final and over-rule 
the might of the Divine MirMV 

Natural science is the knowledge of the laws which gov- 
ern material things— matter, the existence of which Chris- 
iian Science denies* 

"There is no physical science," says Christian Science. 
(Page 122.) Very few natural scientists credit materia! 
things — matter— with being a law unto itself. What right 
has Mr3. Eddy to assert any belief aboM the laws of natural 
science^ when in the proceeding paragraph, she says, "There 
is no physical science?" Natural and physical science are 
identical. 

Brief notes : 

Page 143 : "It is plain that God does not employ drugs or 
hygiene, nor provide them for human use ; else Jesus would 
have recommended and employed them in his healings. . . 
^. The Divine Mind never called matter medicine; and mat- 
ter required a material and human mind, before it could be 
considered as medicine." 

Prov. xxii, 22 : "A merry heart doeth good like a medi- 
cine." 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 43 

Jer. XXX, 13 : "There is none to plead thy cause, that thou 
mayest be bound up; thou hast no healing medicines. Thus 
saith the Lord." 

Ezek. xlvii, 12 ; . . . "And the fruit thereof shall be for 
meat and the leaf thereof for medicine. Thus saith God's 
prophet Ezekiel." 

It can safely be said that the "Divine Mind" knew of 
"medicines" and the use of them by man in the healing art. 
Jesus knew of the art so practiced among men, because He 
chose Luke as one of His apostles, and Luke was a physi- 
cian. Jesus certainly knew what He was doing. 

"The Divine Mind never called matter medicine." The 
book. Science and Health, reiterates repeatedly that "there 
is no matter'^ and yet here is a plain intimation of the exis- 
tence of matter which the "Divine Mind" never called . . 
. medicine." God did not call the animals which were 
housed in the ark by any distinguishing names, only to say 
beasts of the field, fowls of the air and creeping things, each 
after his kind. The Bible only knows the serpent, but there 
are many kinds of serpents and man, to distinguish them, 
one from the other, has given them names. This was left 
for man to do. God compounded no medicines, but he 
created herbs and minerals and gave each its properties 
which were left for man to discover and give a nomencla- 
ture, and then ascertain its value and utility. And more 
than that He gave to man the talents for analysis and dis- 
covering uses. 

So in the entire range of the created universe. This is 
sound philosophy as against Christian Science theories, else, 
the Creator has given man five senses, or six, perhaps, with 
a Mortal Mind which continually leads him astray, which 



44 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 



by the way is the claim of Christian Science. 

;Page 144: "Will power is not science — its use is to be 
condemned — it produces evil continually and is not a factor 
in the realm of being." 

The New Testament has much to say of the will, from 
which is gathered that while man's will is free, it should be 
in harmony with the will of its Creator, for in this lies man^s 
highest good. 

Behind all the activities of Infinity, there must have been 
a purpose. If no will but God's will, then all action would 
have been perfect and harmonious. But He endowed men 
with free will — good and evil was set before him with ab- 
solute power of choice. Such a scheme necessarily and 
logically involved the reservation of power to regulate and 
control what otherwise would be left to fixed laws. Hence 
miracles, so-called — consistent with infinite power and with- 
in the scope of Divine regulation and control. Man pro- 
poses, God disposes. 

Page 147 : *'Jesus never spake of disease as dangerous, or 
as difficult to treat." 

A being with infinite power could have no use for terms 
which imply limitations of power. Such words, when used 
in scripture, apply to man's conduct. 

Page 393 : "Man is never sick ; for mind is not sick, and 
matter cannot be." 

There is such a combination of matter, known as man, 
and at times he gets into a condition which he and other 
men call sick. The mind is a function of brain which does 
become so diseased as to disturb the mind and oftentimes 
irrevocably destroy it. Proper care, diet and medication re- 
stores sanity to insane patients. The beliefs of the patient 
before, or at the time of his mental abberation, have noth- 
ing to do with the restoration, except in showing the causes 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 45 



of the original disturbance. 

Page 288 : "The statement that Truth is real, necessarily 
includes the correlated statement, that error is unreal." 

Truth is an abstraction, and may be said to be real ; error 
is an abstraction, and as such is as real as truth. If unreal, 
then error is non-existent. 

Page 288: Among "the chief stones in the temple of 
Christian Science" is, "that soul is sinless, not to be found in 
the body." 

Gen. ii, 7 : "Man became a living soul.'' 

Matt, xvi, 26, and Mark vii, 36 : "For what shall it profit 
a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul." How 
lost? By SIN I 

I John, i, 8 : "If we say we have no sin, we deceive our- 
selves and the truth is not in us." 

I John i, 10: "If we say we have not sinned, we make 
him a liar and his word is not in us.'' 

I John i, 7: "Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth from all 
sin. 

Ezeki?l xviii, 4 : "The soul that sinneth. it shall die." 

I Peter ii, 11: "Abstain from fleshy lusts, which war 
against the soul." 

Page 334: "Jesus was a corporeal, or bodily existence." 

Then Jesus to "Mortal Minds" was a material substance, 
matter, existing to the material senses. He was seen, heard 
and touched, yet Christian Science says, "Mortal Mind is 
error." Therefore, Jesus, a concept of "Mortal Mind," was 
"error"! 

Page 334 3d paragraph: "There is only one method of 
treating disease, which should be presented to the whole 
world, and that is Christian Science, which Jesus preached 
and practiced and left to us as His rich legacy.'' 

Mrs. Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, only last 



46 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

spring (1905), advised her followers to submit to the rules 
and regulations of the various boards of health in regard to 
the prevailing epidemic of diptheria. 

She also says (page 402) : That ''Christian Science is 
always the most skillful surgeon, but surgery is the last 
branch of healing to be acknowleged." 

In the third paragraph above cited, Mrs. Eddy, the foun- 
der, says : "The only one method of treating disease . . . 
that . . . which Jesus preached and practiced and left to 
us as a rich legacy." 

Page 147 she told her readers that "Our Master healed 
the sick . . . and taught His students, but left (note 
word "left" in the two paragraphs, just above) no definite 
rule for demonstrating this principle of healinfi and prevent- 
ing disease." 

Mrs. Eddy claims no inconsistencies in her book. Science 
and Eealth, and asserted "If one statement in her book is 
true, each and every statement must be true." 

Christian Science resolves itself, under the interpretation 
of the "revelation" to Mrs. Eddy, into the direct interven- 
tion of God Almighty in curing human ills. The world 
would be in a sad fix if the innumerable ills of humanity had 
to await Divine intervention. The idea that man can do 
nothing for himself to prevent, or cure, disease or injuries, 
is absurd and utterly at variance with the precepts of Chris- 
tianity, and human observation and experience. Not that 
He could not ; but if so, why the preliminary pow-wows of 
Christian Science? If so, why not preserve mien, women 
and children from all ills in the first instance? This certainly 
would have been more economical. 

Page 341 : "In Christian Science, mere opinion is value- 
less. Proof is essential to a due estimate of this subject." 



The Fallacies of Chribtian Science. 47 



And yet the book — Science and Health — is replete with 
"^opinions" unsupported by proof — bare assertions — without 
fact or philosophy to sustain them. 

Page 345 : ""But in this volume of mine there are no con- 
tradictory statements — at least none which are apparent to 
those who understand its propositions well enough to pass 
judgment upon them. One who understands Qiristian Sci- 
ence can heal the sick on its divine Principle (the capital P 
is Eddy's), and this practical proof is the only feasible evi- 
dence that one understands this Science." 

These propositions are adroitly cunning. The critic, unbe- 
liever in Christian Science, is at the mercy of the founder. 
If one should say, "I understand what she says, but I find 
here and there contradictory statements," then Mrs. Eddy 
would reply ^*You do not understand them well enough to 
pass judgment upon them." Another should say "I under- 
stand what she says and comprehend her philosophy, but I 
do not believe it ; I know it is false." 

**Yes," Mrs. Eddy replies, '*You do not understand it well 
enough to pass judgment upon it." 

Again, if one should say "I understand Christian Science,'^ 
Mirs. Eddy would ask, "Can you heal the sick?" "No." 
Then you do not understand it — the only "feasible evidence" 
is lacking! 

Page 150 : *To-day the healing power of Truth if widely 
demonstrated as an immanent, eternal Science, instead of a 
phenominal exhibition. Its appearing is the coming anew 
of the gospel of *on earth peace, good will towards men.' 
The coming, as was promised by the Master, is for its estab- 
lishment as a permanent dispensation, to remain forever 
among men, but the mission of Christian Science now as in 
the time of its earliest demonstration, is not primarily one 
of physical healing. Now, as then, signs and wonders are 



48 The Fallacies of^ CHRrSTiAN SciENCE'r 



wrought in the metaphysical healing of physical disease ;• but 
these signs are only to demonstrate its divine origin — to at^ 
test the reality of its higher mission, or Christ-power to take- 
away the sins of the world." 

What confiin'g was promised by the master ? The coming: 
of Himself is promised and nothing else. The gospel on "om 
earth peace, and good-will toward men" h here, tiiere, afldi 
everywhere on the globe. Nothing is known so widely and 
circulated so univetisally among men as the gospel of peace 
and good-will. It will not be long before it will have reached 
the eyes and ears of all men, world around. Why this *'comr 
ing anew" of what is already here and has been for 1,900 
years, and from all human evidences is destined to remain. 

Agitin, the mission of Christian Science ... is not 
primarily one of physical healing," and yet every public 
advocate of Christian Science discottrses mostly upon its 
potency in healing the ills of flesh ; and the burden of song^^ 
of its adherents is healing. Take away the "healing art'^ 
from Christian Science and the system would collapse. 

Again, "But these signs . . . are only , , . to at- 
test ... its higher mission, or Christ-power to take away 
the sins of the world." 

Why this second and inferior edition of the plan of salva- 
tion by Mrs. Eddy, as she claims, God's chosen one? 

A bolder and grosser piece of presumptious egotism was 
never penned than the paragraph quoted above 1 God, in 
His infinite wisdom sent His only begotten son to exempHfy 
the plan to take away the sins of the world. He taught and 
demonstrated the plan in every essential detail and gave evi- 
dence of His super-huttian power and divine commission by 
healing the sick and distressed upon every hand. He com- 
missioned the apostles to preach the gospel to every creature 



TDhe Pax"lactes of Christian Science. 49 

3md they healed. The seventy were sent out to establish 
^litirches and they healed. He said upon the tross amid 
signs and wonders, "It is finisihed," 'and sealed it with His 
blood. What finished ? His work, undou^btedly. W!iy this 
second effort to save tlie world from its sins, by the same 
means and with the same object in view; except that Mary 
Baker G. P. Eddy is the self-appointed substitute for Christ? 

What a travesty upon ordinary intelligence. If this "Com- 
ing anew of the Gospel" of peace . . . and "now k& 
then, signs and wonders are wrought in t^e metaphysical 
healing of physical disease," why should the method of heal- 
ing be radically changed ? Christ healed with a word ; so with 
the apostks ; so with others specially endowed with the heal- 
ing ability. The cure in these cases was immediate, with no 
belief, no adoption of any given opinion on the part of those 
cured was necessary ; showing that these miraculous results 
were primarily to demonstrate the divinity of Christ and the 
divine origin of His mission; and not for the purpose of 
establishing among men a new system of healing. Healing 
the sick, discarding surgery, condemning all other curative 
systems, courting death in many cases rather than invoke 
medical aid, seems to be the chief aim of Christian Science. 
Christ healed all those "taken with divers diseases and tor- 
ments," and those which "were lunatic." He used no argu- 
ment to cure the lunatic. He knew better than that — noth- 
ing but a "command" "Take up thy bed and walk; stretch 
forth thine hand, daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.^^ 
Arguments, or the imposition of a new faith, Or religious 
doctrines, upon those seeking His aid, would have defeated 
the very purpose He had in view, in miraculous healing. 

Mrs. Eddy says : "The arguments to be used in curing in- 



50 TfiE Fallacies of Christian SeiEjrcier.' 



sanity are the same as in other diseases, namely the impos- 
sibility that matter, brain, can control or derange mind — tO' 
fix truth steadfastly in your patient's thoughts, explain Chris- 
tian Science to them, but not too soon — not until your 
patients are prepared for it, lest you array the sick against 
their own interests by troubling and perplexing their 
thoughts." 

Stopping not to call the attention to the utter futility of 
arguing with a lunatic, for if the patient could comprehend 
arguments he woulci not be a lunatic, here we have a meta- 
physical scheme for curing disease whicfi may prove bene- 
ficial in some, but will fail in most cases. At most, such a. 
plan is nothing more than mind influencing mind and there- 
by effecting results, good, bad or indifferent, but establish- 
ing nothing as to a divine origin. With Christ and the apos- 
tles, no matter who nor what. He spake and it was done. 

A lunatic entertains illusions — lies. Christian Science 
tells him that "brain"^ cannot "derange mind" — another lie. 
Only on the theory of the homeopathic maxim, "similia sim- 
ilibiis curantur, could the Qiristian Science remedy for in- 
sanity prove efficacious. 

Page 153: *'You say a boil is painful; but that is impos- 
sible, for matter without mind is not painful. The boil 
simply manifests your belief in pain, through inflamation 
and swelling. Now administer to your patient a high at- 
tenuation of truth on this subject and it will soon cure the 
boi.1.^' 

Wlhat truth shall be "attenuated?" That the boil is not 
painful ? If so, that will be a falsehood — which may safely 
be defined as a "high attenuation of truth." Thus Christian 
Science would cure boils! 

Page 165 : "Christian Science claims : "Obedience to the 
so-called physical laws has not checked sickness. Diseases 
have multiplied, since man-made material theories have 
taken the place of spiritual truth." 

The history of diseases and epidemics disprove this state- 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 51 

ment. Had it not been for the advance in the science of 
medical practice, man would have become extinct by this 
time. "Diseases have multiplied" in number while "spiritual 
truth*' has grown apace. Every ailment now-a-days has a 
local habitation and specific name. In early times a single 
name covered a multitude of diseases — the same disease will 
present varying symptoms and features, each having a spe- 
cific name to distinguish it from other forms of the same dis- 
ease. Man's multiplied occupations and wide-earth mean- 
derings have afltected him to the point of sickness — many of 
them new and unheard of, but each requiring careful diag- 
nosis and medication. The list of incurable diseases is les- 
sening every decade and the science and practice of medi- 
cine is the almoner of untold beneficies to the human race. 
Many diseases which have had, in the past, an alarming rat^ 
of mortality have now a small percentage of loss — all the 
direct result of "mortal mind," which Christian Science de- 
nominates "error.'* Such discoveries, efifect, and then causes 
are left for man to ferret out by God Himself, and wisely 
too. The old animosity and war between science and re- 
vealed religion is rapidly dying out. Each has its place' in 
human well-being and are mutually helpful. 

Page 152: "Anatomy describes muscular action as pro- 
duced by mind in one instance and not in another. Such 
errors beset every material theory, wherein one statement 
contradicts another, over and over again. It is related that 
Sir Humphrey Davy once apparently cured a case of para- 
lysis, by simply introducing a thermometer into the patient's 
mouth. This he did merely to ascertain the temperature of 
the patient's body ; and the sick man supposed this ceremony 
was intended to heal him, and he recovered accordingly. 
Such a fact illustrates our theories." 

The above quotation is a single paragraph in Science and 
Health. Assuming the Davy incident to be true, arguendo. 



52 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

how does such a fact, one fact in multiplied thousands to 
the contrary, "illustrate'' any theory? "Illustrate" in this 
instance may be taken to mean demonstrate — prove. What 
theory is illustrated ? Evidently the theory set out in the 
first sentences of the paragraph cited above — that anatomy 
is in error when describing muscular action, controlled by 
mind in some instances and not in others. 

The unlocking of paralyzed muscles, as in the Davy case, 
proves but one thing — the possibility of such a happening. 
It takes numerous instances, alike, or similar to each other, 
to "illustrate," demonstrate, and prove theories, and, as is 
sometimes said, exceptions only establish the rule. The rule 
is that every person who has reached the age of compre- 
hension knows the object of a physician placing a thermom- 
eter in the mouth of a patient and such an act proves only 
two things necessary for the physician to know : 

I. — It is a test of bodily temperature, and 

2. — Is it above or below normal ? 

The Davy incident proves only a possibility and has no 
bearing whatever on the natural action of muscles. The 
muscles of a baby in arms are voluntary. This is a wise 
provision. They need activity for growth and development, 
otherwise they would lie dormant and wither. As age in- 
creases and mental powers grow, some muscles are moved 
by the will, or mental action, while others retain their prop- 
erty of voluntary action. No mental process is invoked to 
maintain the action of the different organs of the human 
organism. Digestion, nutrition, respiration, growth — men- 
tal and physical, deposit of waste matter, in a normal hu- 
man, silently and voluntarily, from birth to death. These 
processes are largely the result of unseen activity. When 



The Fallacies op Christian Science. r)3 

normal action is delayed, or clogged in any manner, by any 
means, external or internal, the abnormal condition is soon 
impressed upon the mind through nerve action, and nature 
summons her forces to overcome the obstruction. If beyond 
her resources, material aid is summoned and soon conditions 
improve and the patient is well. Material medicines affect 
human tissue directly — they allay fever, reduce inflamma- 
tion, soothe and quiet nerves, aid digestion, purify blood 
and increase its quantity, dissolve impedimienta, increase 
heart action, restore diseased tissue, relieve congestion, all 
these with or without any belief on the part of the patient 
as to the medicine, its properties, or its efficacy. An eminent 
Topeka physician says : "It is often desirable to tell the 
patient what the medicine is expected to do." But most 
physicians are very chary of giving to any one the compo- 
sition of prescriptions or their properties, or what they ex- 
pect to accomplish in the given case by the prescription. 
Latin names and characters to indicate quantities are used, 
which are unintelligible to the ordinary person. 

Muscles of locomotion are involuntary and largely con- 
trolled and directed by will power. Therefore if human ob- 
servation, experience and investigation are worth anything, 
anatomy is not in "error" and "one statement contradicts 
another therein, when it asserts and proves that mind pro- 
duces muscular action" in one instance and not in another? 

But the most serious proposition which confronts the read- 
er is, how any one, making any pretense to think just a little 
bit, can make an allegation about muscular action, and then 
take one freak instance as proof of her theory, when all oth- 
er examples are against it. 

If this was the only instance in the book — Science and 
Health — or one of a few instances, of such reasoning to 



54 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

prove her erroneous allegations, there might be some relief 
in the adage — it is human to err — but when equally absurd 
propositions are made upon almost every page, and conclu- 
sions jumped at, or some freak instance adduced as "proof," 
is becomes burdensome, and the query is forced — ''What 
manner of woman is she?" 

Drugs do cure. Animals entertain no beliefs. Instinct 
alone guides them. Force or finesse is adopted by man 
when his domestic animals need medicine. This instinct 
which directs the cat to the catnip bush when in distress is 
hereditary. The properties of the catnip act upon the living 
tissues of the cat which is made whole. Matter acting upon 
matter produces a cure. No one except the Creator did 
"equip" the catnip for the salvation of the feline tribe. Cat- 
nip tea is good for a bad cold, baby colic and to bring out 
measles. Good mothers store away catnip for use in winter. 

Physicians oftentimes experiment with certain drugs by 
taking them. They do this for the sole purpose of ascer- 
taining the effects of the drug and the antidote or remedy. 
One of the leading physicians of this city (Topeka, Kans.,) 
wished to know the effect of an overdose of cocaine and its 
antidote. The physician summoned to his relief wanted to 
give chloroform, which the patient said he knew would prove 
fatal, and in order to defend himself from the doctor had 
his servant set his shot-gun at the head of his bed. He 
threatened to kill the man who attempted to choloform him. 
He prescribed for himself and recovered. Now he says : 
"I know the effect of an overdose of cocaine and the rem- 
edy." No "mortal mind" produced the effects in this case, 
because the doctor did not know the effects — he wished to 
ascertain them ; nor did he know the antidote. The cocaine 
— an overdose — camie in contact with the living tissues and 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 



results were noted and certain remedial agents were ap- 
plied and the effects noted. French physicians are cele- 
brated for the information they contribute to medical knowl- 
edge by similar experiments. 

Page 219: "What renders both sin and sickness difficult 
of cure is, that the human mind is the sinner, disinclined to 
self-correction, and believing the body can be sick independ- 
ently of the mortal mind, and that the Divine Mind has no 
jurisdiction over the body.'' 

How often persons have some bodily infirmity resulting 
from accident wholly unexpeted and outside of their minds. 
They are paralyzed, but the mind remains clear, and they be- 
come the head of great movements. For example, Jennie 
Cassidy of Louisville, from her sick chamber founded and 
directed the flower mission for the United States, which 
furnishes flowers to all the hospitals of many cities. She is 
not a sinner, she is not disinclined to self-correction. She 
undoubtedly believes 'That the body can be sick independ- 
ently of the 'mortal mind,' and that the 'Divine mind' has 
jurisdiction of the body.'' 

When asked with whom his telephone should be first con- 
nected, the mayor of Louisville replied: "With Jennie Cas- 
sidy — I have more to do with her than any one else." 

"Mortal mind" does not "make the whole body sick." 
Mortal mind notes abnormal conditions and adverse symp- 
toms in the human body. The prudent man sets about to 
treat causes and provide a remedy. Consultation is had with 
his physician. Diagnosis reveals the presence of conditions 
which prognosticate fever. Advice and medicine is given 
and in a few days the man is sound and well. This preven- 
tive medicine which is worth a pound of cure. Long and 
painful sickness can be avoided if timely medical aid is in- 



()6 The Fallacies of Christian Science". 

voked. E. G. — exterminating mosquitoes, sanitation and 
vaccination. 

"Mortal nxind" does not make the condition in the body— - 
a microbe, a disease germ, finds lodgment in the living tis- 
sue and begins its work. The nerves are disturbed at the 
point of attack and the ''mortal mind" is informed that somie- 
thing is wrong, but the trained physician can alone determine 
from pre-existing facts and conditions and present symp- 
toms the cause of the suffering. The "mortal mind" nOw 
summons all its powers with the aid of diet and medication^ 
to quell the disturbance. Convalescence succeeds and the 
patient recovers. He is sound and well and at no time dur- 
ing his illness has any appeal been made to his belief or dis- 
beliefs on any subject under, on, or above the earth. He 
was sick and nature aided by a skillful physician restored 
him to wonted health. The physical organization slipped a 
cog, or broke a strap, and human science, discovered by man, 
acting in conjunction with nature, remiedied the defect, and 
the patient is himself again. Man to be successful in any 
field of activity, must act in conjuction with nature and her 
laws. 

Page 157: "Matter is not self-creative, for it is unintel- 
ligent. Erring mortal mind confers the only mental power a 
drug possesses." 

These sentences follow each other on the same page. 
Query: How can matter . . . "unintelligent" as every 
intelligent person admits, have "mental power" from any 
source? Such inconsistencies ramify the pages of "Science 
and Health, or Key to the Scriptures." 

"Erring mortal mind" could not 'confer'' any "power" it 
knew nothing of. The asphyxiative property of coal gas 
was a discovery of "erring mortal mind" ; so with the prop- 
erties of morphine, cocaine, alcohol and every drug known 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 57 

to men. "Erring mortal mind" produces liquid air, but no 
^'mental power" is conferred; properties are observed and 
noted as investigation and experiment progress. But why 
proceed further with arguments, which must commend 
themselves to every one who can lay claim to candid thought. 

Cbe Eoras Prayer. 



Mrs. Eddy, under her commission as an inspired interp- 
reter of the scriptures, paraphrases The Lord's Prayer, by 
way of interpretation. All the writer has to say is : If God 
Almighty in His infinite wisdom inspired her to do anything 
of the kind. He mistook the fitness of His interpreter, or 
she forgot the gravity of her assignment. 

Luke represents Christ as having ceased praying and 
one of the disciples said, "Lord, teach us to pray." He then 
repeated the prayer which we know as the Lord's prayer. 
Matthew pictures Christ directing the giving of alms, and 
the method of prayer and then He repeats the Lord's Prayer. 
That prayer is simple, yet profound. A child can compre* 
bend it. A savant can revel in its profundities. It includes 
within it, short, terse, crisp sentences the entire round of 
man's relations to his creator, and His fatherly guardian- 
ship over His children. Now listen to the paraphrase : 

"Our Father-Mother God, all harmonious, adorable one. 
The kingdom is within us, Thou art ever present. Enable 
us to know as in heaven, so on earth God is supreme. Give 
us grace for to-day; Feed the famished affections; and in- 
finite love is reflected in Love ; and love leadeth us not into 
temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease and death. 
For God is now and forever all life, truth and love." 



58 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

Christ, before dictating His prayer, warned them against 
praying as the heathen do, and gave as a reason *'for your 
Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask 
Him/' 

The Eddy paraphrase is principally composed of allega- 
tions which may be true, or false. God only knows. Wpiere 
is any warrant in natural or revealed religion for substitut- 
ing *'Our Father-Mother God," for the endearing *'Our 
Father ?"' It is absurd and utterly meaningless in the philo- 
sophy of the Eternal One. Christ said, "Who art .in 
heaven," Eddy says, **A11 harmonious !" 

Christ said, ''Hallowed be thy name." Eddy substitutes 
"Adorable One." The Lord's prayer is a petition from the 
dependent to the Allwise Father and giver of every perfect 
gift. It is in nowise a philosophical address to the deity, de- 
fining His powers and limitations. "Hallowed be thy 
name !" is a prayer that His name may be hallowed, conse- 
crated, be made holy — a more significant expression and of 
deeper meaning and broader application than "Adorable 
One!" 

"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is 
in heaven'' is a prayer, while the Eddy paraphrase, "Thy 
kingdom is within us" is an egotistical allegation, and as a 
philisophical proposition, is untrue. It may be in those 
whose hearts and minds are attuned to the precepts of the 
Father. The Savior says, "Behold, I stand at the door and 
knock" — man must bid Him enter, before God's kingdom 
can be set up, "within him." 

"Give us grace for to-day" cannot, by any rule of rhetoric, 
be twisted into "Give us this day our daily bread !" 

Matthew makes Christ say, "and forgive us our debts," 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 59 

while Luke gives it, *'and forgive us our sins." Christ says, 
"Lead us not into temptation, but deHver us from evil" by 
the authority of both Matthew and Luke. 

Eddy says, **And love leadeth not into temptation, but de- 
livereth us from sin, disease and death. . . . For God is 
now and forever ... all love.'' Then God leadeth not 
into temptation when in fact the Father permitted Christ to 
be tempted by the devil ! He tempted Abraham, as a test of 
his faith, and permitted Satan to tempt Job. 

Here again a prayer, "Lead us not into temptation, etc.," 
is paraphrased into a declatory statement, "and love lead- 
eth us not into temptation," which is shown to be untrue. 

"And infinite love is reflected in love," is an allegation 
which passeth understanding. "Feed the famished affec- 
tions,'' is another demand, which is subject to a variety of 
interpretations. 

The language of the Lord's prayer is plain and simple, 
direct, within the comprehension of the most humble of 
God's children. A prayer which, it is enough to say, Christ 
taught to His disciples. 

Upon what is a revelation based that attempts 
to improve the Divine thought, expressed by Di- 
vinity Incarnate? Christ gave ample proof, not 
only of His mission, but as well his authority to 
reveal the will of His Father. Even laying aside her 
prophetic vision, which at most is in doubt, by what author- 
ity does she presume to explain a new revelation of the 
plainer and more comprehensive teachings and doctrines of 
Christ? "Christ was God, manifest in the flesh." What is 
the claim of Mrs. Eddy? Is she the "Mother-God," of 
whom she speaks? Is it "Me und Gott" in her newly re- 



60 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 



vealed "Lord's prayer?'' And I have no desire to speak ir- 
reverently. She is enough of that for all ! 

Matthew closes the Lord's prayer with, "For thine is the 
kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen." 

Luke omits this ascription and commentators agree that 
it is an interpellation. 

Under the plenary writ of revelation, she may have been 
authorized to mystify an otherwise plain prayer, one that 
is ample for the peasant and king ; the simple child of nature 
and the sage; but by what authority does she paraphrase 
the literary contribution of another ? 

The author of the ascription cited above gave her no au- 
thority to change it to . . . "For God is now and forever 
all life, truth and love." Such a presumptuous assumption 
would endanger all literature. 

An esteemed friend suggests the following "deadly" 
parallel and at his suggestion the Lord's prayer and Mary 
Baker G. P. Eddy's paraphrase (parody is a better term) 
are inserted here : 



THE LORD'S PRAYER 

Our Father which art in 
heaven. 

Hallowed be Thy name, 

Thy kingdom come. 

Thy will will be done in 
earth as it is in heaven. 

Give us this day our daily 
bread ; 

And forgive us our debts, 
as we forgive our debtors. 

And lead us not into 
temptation, but deliver us 
from evil; 

For thine is the kingdom, 
and the power, and the glory 
forever. Amen. 



EDDY'S INTERPRETATION 

Our Father-Mother God, 
all harmpnious. 

Adorable one! 

Thy kingdom is within us, 
Thou art ever present. 

Enable us to know, as in 
heaven, so on earth, God is 
supreme. 

Give us grace for to-day; 
feed the famished affections. 

And infinite Love is re- 
flected in Love; 

And love leadeth us not 
into temptation, but deliv- 
ereth us from sin, disease, 
and death. 

For God is now and for- 
ever all Life, Truth and 
Love. 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 61 

If "there is no matter," as Christian Science alleges, then 
there can be no such science as chemistry. It may be de- 
fined as the science of matter acting upon matter. Man 
brings matter in contact with matter and then notes results. 
Properties of various substances, solids and liquids and 
gases, are experimented with until by a series of results 
definite propositions can be made. 

The Creator has purposely left a great universe of facts 
and principles in the mental, moral and physical realms to 
be ascertained by man himself, and with due reverence be it 
said. He was necessarily compelled to do so, having en- 
dowed man with free-will. Man stumbles and falls before 
he learns the true balance required in walking. Man pur- 
sues an idea; experiments repeatedly; often fails, but per- 
sists and at last cries ''Eureka!" Many discoveries of man 
are verities, because they are facts in the created universe, 
existing by virtue of the Divine genius. God is the author 
of all laws governing the universe and man simply discovers 
these, and within its functions, the "mortal mind" is just as 
logical as the Divine Mind. Man checks one set of discov- 
eries with another and as in mathematics proves his method 
and their results. Man determines the eclipses to the day, 
hour and minute — the proof of the formulae lies in the dark 
shadow on the face of sun or moon at the time designated. 
These are not "false concepts" of "mortal mind,'' nor 
"illusions" as Christian Science would have us believe. Man 
invents and produces results which interest and amaze the 
beholder. There is no "illusion" here. "Illusions" are evi- 
dences of mental aberration. Man learns certain facts and 
principles, he thinks and experiments, and discovers other 
facts and principles ; he brings these together and constructs 
a machine and thereby effects definite pufpose. Mortal mind 



62 The Fallaci5:8 of Christian Science. 

accomplished the result and there is no "illusion" about it. 
The science of mathematics, with all its profound reason- 
ing is the work of creative genius and man's discovery, with- 
in whose infinite formulae, he determines the times, seasons, 
composition, specific gravities, velocities, distances of the 
heavenly bodies ; in other words he discovers the method of 
constructing the universe. This is "material matter," and 
there is no "illusion" about it. It seems trite to offer such 
simple propositions to intelligent people, and it would be 
foolish, were it not that men and women are going about 
the land lauding Mrs. Eddy and her book and its contents, 
as the cure-all for human ills. Only with the philosophy of 
the book — "Science and Health" — has this essay to do. 

History relates that the development of miedical science 
began with the infancy of society, as far back as historical 
tradition. In Egypt the study of mtedicine was of an early 
date, and its medical men were in such repute that they were 
sent for from other countries. 

The Babylonians had no physicians. The afflicted were 
exposed in Dublic places and those persons passing, who had 
been similarly afflicted, were required under penalty to sug- 
gest to the sick the means, or medicines, by which a cure 
was effected. The Hindoos in medicine, as in astronomy 
and metaphysics, kept pace with the most enlightened na- 
tions. The Jews gave much attention to medicine from 
ancient times. Exodus, xv, 26 ; Isaiah iii, 7 ; Jeremiah viii, 
22; 2 Kings XX, 7; Ex. xx, 19; 2 Kings viii, 29; Ezekiel 
XXX, 21. 

The Greeks gave Hippocrates to the world. It is clearly 
established that long before the birth of philosophy, medi- 
cine had been zealously and successfullly cultivated by the 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 63 

Aesclepiadae, an order of priest-physicians, tracing their 
origin to Aesculapius, whose sons Homer praises highly for 
surgical skill in one of his poems. The reason is obvious. 
The ills of body and mind required immediate attention and 
were more important than the preponderance of evidence 
and logic between quidhbet and quodlibet. The excellence 
of their skill has been the wonder and admiration of all ages. 
The first Greek physicians visited Rome in 219 B. C. 

No word of criticism escaped the lips of Christ or his 
apostles, in regard to the physicians or the practice of medi- 
cine of the time nor of any preceding time. Christ drove 
out the ''frenzied financiers'^ from the temple; the scribes, 
who "love to go in long clothing, devour widows houses,*' 
and the Pharases who "make long prayers" were condemned, 
but no word derogatory to the physicians. No reply came to 
the taunt, "Physician heal thyself." 

Christian Science says Christ healed, but prescribed no 
drugs, therefore they must not. If He had he would have 
given His whole case away and descended to the level of the 
ordinary physician; as it was He convinced the people of 
His divinity and His divine commission. If the Christian 
Scientist is so great a stickler for the example of Christ in 
the one direction, why not refrain, as He did, from any ref- 
erence to the current medical practice and its expounders 
and practitioners ? Mrs. Eddy takes occasion, several times> 
beginning with the preface of "Science and Health," to 
speak illy of physicians and their practice. Every alleged 
"Fruitage" is an indictment of medical practice. She says 
in the preface, "Sickness has been fought for centuries by 
doctors using material remedies, but, 1;he question arises, Ts 
there less sickness because of these practitioners?' " "No!** 
is her response. Just as though physicians were respon- 



64 Thb Fallagies of Christian Sciencev 

sibk for sickness 1 One of the reasons she gave under her 
emphatic "No!" is "the rapid multiplication and increased 
violence of diseases since the flood/' Passing by any refer- 
ence to her source of information in reiatiofi to the "multi- 
plication and violence of diseases since the flood," the answer 
is challenged as wholly irresponsive to the question, which 
shows that she had no intention to be fair with her readers^ 
and enlighten them upon the increase and violence of dis- 
eases^ but simply to have a possible basis for a groundless: 
attack upon the medical profession. 

The reason for the current diseases and their violence and 
number is very plain to the student of history. M|an has 
gone from the habitations about the ark, "since the flood," 
all over the earth, into all latitudes, longitudes and altitudes ; 
down into the bowels of the earth; he has inhaled all airs, 
gases ; he has experimented with everythi ng in the known 
world, oftentimes with health and even life in the balance; 
plagues have been transmitted by immigration, and these 
in turn have been modified and intensified by new conditions ; 
the infinite industries and occupations of mankind, many of 
which develop diseases peculiar to themselves, have added to 
man's ills. The cultivation of primitive soils have engen- 
dered serious ills among pioneers. To the professional 
mind, many multiplications, instead of being different dis- 
eases, are simply classifications of the same disease — this is 
of advantage in the literature of the medical sciences, en- 
abling the student and practitioner to diagnose accurately 
and differentiate remedial agencies. 

Whether more or less diseases in number, or whether of 
greater or less violence, are questions which concern only 
the medical savant, but for the number and violence of dis- 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 65 

eases, the profession of medicine is in no wise respotisible. 

Page 547 : "If one of the statements in this book is true, 
every one must be true, for not one departs from its sys- 
tem and rule." 

What consummate egotism i 

"Gazing at a chained lion, crouched for a spring, would 
not terrify a man," is a statement in the book at page 380, 
and is true. 

That being true, says Mrs. Eddy, * 'every statement must 
be true." Let us examine some statements taken at random 
from her book. 

"Food does not affect the absolute life of man. The less 
we know or think about hygiene, the less we are predisposed 
to sickness." 

"Man is never sick for mind is not sick, and matter can- 
not be." 

"Mortal mind is not an entity — it is only a false sense 
of matter.'' 

"The only effect produced by medicine is dependent upon 
mental action.^' 

"You say that accidents, injuries and disease kill men, but 
this is not true." 

"You command the situation, if you understand that 
mortal existence is a state of self deception, and not the 
truth of being." 

"The human mind produces disease, and the Divine tmnd 
removes disease." 

"All sin is insanity in different degrees." 

"The Scientist knows there can be no hereditary disease.*' 

The Bible says. Exodus xx, 5, "The Lord thy God am a 
jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the father upon his 



66 The Fallacies of Chribtiajt Science; 

children unto the third and fourth generations of them that 
hate me." 

"The child can have worms if you say so.'^ ( Page 4I3-) 

''Matter cannot be inflamed." 

"Opiates do not remove pain in any proper sense of the 
word." 

"There is no matter." 

"To prevent or cure scrofula and other so-called heredi- 
tary diseases, you must destroy belief in these ills, and the 
faith in the possibility of their transmission." 

E. G. A child is born and soon is covered with offensive 

sores. The physician pronounces them syphilitic. The 
babe has not violated any law of God or man, but its father, 
grandfather or great grandfather had not the fear of God 
before his eyes. Scrofula and other diseases victimize the 
mnocent in like manner. "Belief," no matter how potent in 
directing and controlling human action, will not purify 
tainted blood. 

"To admit that you are sick renders your case less cur- 
able." 

"Heat and cold are products of mind." 

If true, why all this expense for ice and fuel ? 

"A dose of poison is swallowed through mistake, and the 
patient dies, . . . human belief causes death, and as 
directly as if the poison had been intentionally taken." 

"All disease is the result of education." 

"Belief is all that enables a drug to cure mortal ailments.'' 
If these statements are true, then Mrs. Eddy's claim; may be 
proven. But if false, misleading and dangerous, then it 
behooves men and women to have a care how they become 
involved in a philosophy which makes the Father to mock 
His creatures. Truly, people should begin to think about 
right things ! 



The Fallacies of Chribtian Science. 67 

Page 456: "So long as drugs are administered, or ex- 
ternal applications used, illness cannot be efficaciously 
treated by the methaphysical process." 

In February, 1906, a Christian Scientist, a maiden lady, in 
middle life, of this city (Topeka, Kans.,) carrying a lighted 
lamp, fell down stairs. Besides some bodily bruises, her 
hair took fire and burned her face severely. At first cloths 
spread with lard were placed over the burns on the face 
while the burns on the hands, which were more severe, were 
bathed in olive oil. A Christian Science healer attended her. 
A cousin of the lady remarked that the bums would not 
leave scars because they were not deep enough, the flesh 
having been simply blistered. The Christian Scientists con- 
gratulated themselves upon the cousin's belief, and said it 
had been a great help to them. It will be remembered that 
this cousin is not a Christian Scientist and his "belief" is 
based upon the scientific knowledge, that mere blisters from 
fire burns, if protected from the light and air, will not leave 
scars. So much for "fruitage" of anti-"metaphysical heal- 
ing." By the way, the expression "metaphysical healing" 
is often used by Mrs. Eddy in her book in describing her 
science of healing. Is that hypnotism ? 

A citizen of this city, subsequently to the burning men- 
tioned, was more seriosuly burned and has long since wholly 
recovered. He had a regular physician. The lady is not 
well yet. Only a few days since she told the same cousin 
that she could not recover, because there is a non-believer 
in the family. Was she hoodooed ? 

Page 155: "When the sick recover by the use of drugs, 
it is the law of a general belief culminating in individual 
faith, which heals; and according to this faith will the 
effect be. Even when you take away the individual con- 



68 The Fallacies of Chribtian Science. 



fidence in the drug, you have not yet dissevered it from gen- 
eral faith. The chemist, the botanist, the druggist, the 
doctor and the nurse equip the medicine with their faith, 
and the beliefs that are in the majority, rule." 

Here is the distinct admission of the value of drugs when 
the "sick recover." Mrs. Eddy's explanation of how drugs 
cure, may or may not be satisfactory. The influence of the 
mind upon the body is as old as medicine. Mind is the 
function of the top-organ of the body and cuts a large figure 
in the other bodily functions and powers. 

But how the "chemist, botanist, druggist, doctor and 
nurse" can "equip" an inanimate thing — medicine — "with 
their faith" in its eflicacy, will not be thought of for a 
moment without the irrefragible proof. Mrs. Eddy denies 
the "intelligence of matter," which no one asserts ; but how 
then living, sentient beings can impress their belief — 
"faith" — upon dead matter is beyond the ken of the writer. 
The chemist and botanist learn from chemical analysis the 
components of herbs and minerals ; these are experimented 
with upon man and animals until their properties are de- 
termined, then their remedial value as medicines, under the 
varying conditions of the human mind and body, are ascer- 
tained by use. The druggist and doctors learn from the 
records made by the chemist and botanist. While the nurse, 
if she or he knows anything of the properties and effects of 
the medicine prescribed, gets the information fromi the at- 
tending physician. The properties of herbs and minerals are 
implanted by the Creator for some wise purpose which is 
left for man to discover. The rule of political action in this 
republic that the "majority rule," has no application in chem- 
istry nor botany. The chemist, or the botanist, who makes a 
discovery in his laboratory, which denies a proposition en- 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 69 

tertained by the scientific world, frequently stands alone. A 
new remedy is flashed upon the world. The discoverer by 
experiment discloses its properties and by his practice ascer- 
tains its remedial agency in certain human ailments. He 
publishes the results of his observations and experiences 
with the new medicine. All the gift of Mortal Mlind to Man 
— which Eddy says is "error." 

But the medical world, from jealousy or other cause, dis- 
believes the efficacy of the new medicine. The "majority" 
is against its use, and, according to Eddy, it should fail and 
its ascribed properties pass out. But no, the rejected stone 
becomes the head of the comer — the new medicine with its 
God-given properties confirms the claims made for it, and 
physicians make haste to prescibe it. 

This is a brief history of many standard remedies in use 
to-day. 

Columbus stood alone against scholars, priests and rulers 
of his time. In fact, every great discovery, every great and 
revolutionary thought, has stood alone, until in God's good 
time it established its right to a place in man's economy. 
Every advance in man's career was in the womb of time and 
has been first in the thought of one — the conundrums of 
yesterday are the maxims upon the play blocks of children 
to-day. God creates — man discovers and utilizes. 

Mrs. Eddy says : "The universal belief in physics weighs 
against the high and mighty truths of Christian metaphy- 
sics." 

The "belief in physics" is not "universal." Able and con- 
scientious men, the world over, are delving into the meta- 
physics of Christianity, and their application to man's pres- 
ent needs. The theological discussions of the past were 
necessary in order that great truths should be established. 



70 The Fallacies op Christian Science. 

For many centuries it was held that Christ's teachings were 
addressed to the individual man, and that his whole duty 
was done with a literal compliance with His commands, un- 
mindful of the great lesson He was teaching. He command- 
ed feet-washing and with His own hands washed His dis- 
ciples feet. The theory that His teachings were applicable to 
bodies of men, communities, states and nations was tabooed. 
Of late, Christian ethics and metaphysics, by man's study 
and investigation, have advanced from the techical compli- 
ance of the individual to the high and enobling position of 
service, self-sacrifice and love, which includes the full and 
complete round of man's obligations and duties to himself, 
his fellow-man in society, the state and the nation. 

Never before in the history of mankind was the belief so 
widespread of the necessary application of Christ's pre- 
cepts and example — Christian ethics and metaphysics to the 
solution of the current social problems. Law can determine 
meum et tmim in dollars and cents, but in the forum of 
Christianity, equities cannot be measured by the thumb. 

Man has been a climber since his advent on the earth. 
Some other way than the right way has apparently been his 
plan. There is a traditional tower of Babel, at the build- 
ing of which the tongues were confused. Men now-a-days 
are erecting no towers, but they are busy revamping old sys- 
tems and garbing them in modern language to give the ap- 
pearance of newness, until the very elect are deceived. One 
editor thinks sneers will not do away with the $2,000,000 
Christian Science edifice, recently dedicated in Boston, and 
attended by 40,000 worshippers ! 

No deductions for the curiosity seekers in a metropolitan 
city like "The Hub." All devout worshippers at the shrine 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 71 

of Mary Baker G. P. Eddy, of course ! 

How about the millions poured into the coffers of John 
Alexander Dowie? Elijah III 

How many millions has the Mormon hierarchy absorbed to 
erect temple and promote a corner on sensual debauchery. 
Imm^igrants are still wending their way to the Mormon 
Zion! 

Many men are gifted in devising schemes to make some- 
thing out of nothing; to liquidate obligations with naked 
promises ; to exalt man in his own opinion ; to clothe vice in 
the habiliments of virtue; to gild base philosophy with the 
ethics of Christianity; to confuse their fellow-men with 
much speaking with newly-coined words and unheard of 
uses of common words. Large contributions, splendid 
equipages, costly raiments and magnificent edifices, tell only 
of zealous communicants. 

The Great Exemplar had not where to lay His head and 
His standard of giving was the "widow's mite" — all she had. 
Human pomp and glitter, which soon mould and decay, lit- 
tle become everlasting truth. 

In a nut shell : 

Mrs. Eddy's book is very peculiar, indeed no book just 
like it. You must read the book "Spiritually" to understand 
it. If you fail to "understand'' you are simply incapacitated 
mentally. And if you do understand the book the evidence 
of your knowledge will be your ability to "demonstrate" by 
healing. 

And then she says: '^Science and Health" is the only 
book from which to learn Christian Science." 

No writer before or since Mrs. Eddy, so absolutely closed 
every avenue to honest investigation of the system. 



72 The Fallacies of Christian Sciench. 

Thus logically she demonstrates the error of her system 
and her fear of investigation. 

That person never lived who can read "spirittially." Read- 
ing is mechanical, and what is read may or may not be given 
a spiritual interpretation or meaning. 

Most of readers will read Christian Science as expounded 
by Eddy, and long before they reach any "spiritual" im- 
pressions, so utterly fallacious will the contents become to 
the intellect of the reader, that the science can never attract 
interest, except among a comparatively peculiar few. 

Christ taught the greatest truths in the simplest manner; 
illustrated by parables which were within the comprehen- 
sion of the commonest people. 

His parables were taken from the familiar things in the 
every-day life of the people, and made applicable to His 
philosophy. His precepts. His plan of salvation. His aim 
was to make these so plain that the "wayfaring man though 
a fool need not err therein." 

In the parables of the tares, laborers in the vineyard, the 
father and two sons, the ten virgins, the talents, the sheep 
and the goats, growth of seed, the good Samaritan, the bar- 
ren fig tree, the prodigal son, the rich man and Lazarus, the 
Pharasee and the publican, the shepherd and the sheep, the 
vine and the branches, the house built on a rock and on the 
sand, the leaven, the lost sheep, the candle under a bushel, 
the sower, the mustard seed, the vineyard and the husband- 
man, the young leaves of the fig tree and others. He gave 
irrefragible proof of His infinite wisdom and the ability to 
illustrate the profoundest relations of man to himself and to 
his God, with the simplest experiences and observations of 
men. He addressed their intellects and never challenged 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 73 

their ability to comprehend. 

Here we have a revealer with a revelation fronn God, as 
she claims, in which she evidently fears some one may not 
understand, so she condemns them in advance as mentally 
incapacitated. 

The absurdity of Christian Science is well illustrated by 
the following incident : 

''A conversation was overheard between a young boy m 
his teens and a Christian Scientist. It appears the Scientist 
came across the boy sitting under an apple tree, doubled up 
with pain. *'My little man," he said, "what is the matter?" 
''I ate some green apples," moaned the boy, "and oh, how I 
ache!'' "You don't ache,'' answered the follower of Mrs. 
Eddy ; "you only think so." 

The boy looked up in astonishment at such a statement, 
and then replied in a most positive manner, "That's all right ; 
you may think so, but I've got inside information." 

Samples of Christian Science Reasoning: 

A female correspondent of the "Brooklyn Standard 
Union," in answer to a critic of Christian Science, says, in 
two paragraphs following each other : 

"Christian Science is the science of Christ, and is omni- 
potent, and the healing of one case of cancer diagnosed 
and pronounced by the medical fraternity proves (by law of 
induction) that its principles are founded upon truth, not 
matter, and therefore practicable under all circumstances 
and throughout all time." 

"A fair investigation of the teaching of Christian Science 
and of the methods employed by its practitioners would 
silence criticism, remove prejudice and reveal the fact that 
their efforts are more often crowned with success than fail- 



74 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

ure, and where human efforts could avail nothing." 

If Christian Science is ''omnipotent/' how can it ever be 
^'crowned with . . . failures ?" If "omnipotent" . . , 
and "practicable under all circumstances/' why should "their 
efforts'' ever be "crowned with , . . failures ?" 

Cancer is very difficult of diagnosis and medical statis- 
tics show the number of cases has steadily increased in the 
last twenty-five years — a period of the broadest field and 
the greatest opportunities for the exploitation of Christian 
Science. Their apparent cures are emblazoned upon every 
telegraph pole, while their ''crozvns of failure*' excite no 
comment and are soon forgotten. 

An esteemed friend of truth and probity related to me 
that a friend had a growth on the side of his nose. It was 
diagnosed as a cancer by several physicians. An old negress 
came along and advised the use of bacon rind. It was vig- 
orously applied and the growth disappeared and had not re- 
turned at last accounts. The salt in the bacon was antiseptic, 
the grease allayed the fever and softened the parts and thus 
nature was greatly aided in eradicating the abnormalty, as 
it was. 

Another instance is related by a friend. In his boyhood 
a growth, on his right wrist, put in an appearance and was 
diagnosed as a rose cancer. Subsequently it disappeared. 

If healing is an element of Christianity, and the power to 
heal has been reinstated through Mirs. Eddy, by a revela- 
tion, as she claims, w^hy the delays attending Christian 
Science healing?" Why not heal by contmand, or touch, as 
Christ and the apostles did ? They cannot ask time for the 
patient to get himself into proper attitude. Christ required 
nothing of the kind, and no such instruction ever fell from 



The Fallacies of Chribtian Science. 75 

His lips. If Christian Science insists upon time, or a given 
mental state on the part of the patient, the healing power 
they claim to have is different from the Christ power. Hyp- 
nosis, or mind cure, would be a more fitting name. 

No other system of healing would be so presumptuous as 
to claim that one case proves anything but a mere possibility 
by ''induction" or deduction. A series of like results under 
similar conditions are the test of remedial agents. The 
jumping at conclusions from a single case as the basis of 
''truth" is characteristic of Christian Scientists, Eddy in- 
cluded. 

The "one case" proves in her estimation "its principles are 
founded upon truth, not matter." The opposite of truth is 
error, and by no process of reasoning, except through Chris- 
tian Science "induction," can principles be truthfully said 
to be founded on matter, in any event, whether true or false. 

Whatever else the correspondent may be, she is certainly 
not a logician, and has no adequate knowledge of the mean- 
ing of words in English and correct construction of the 
language. 

Page 346: "It is sometimes said that Christian Science 
teaches the nothingness of sin, sickness and death, and then 
teaches how this nothingness is to be saved and healed. The 
nothingness of nothing is plain ; but it should be understood 
that error is nothing, and that its nothingness is not saved 
but must be demonstrated, in order to prove the something- 
ness — yea, the allness of Truth." 

Such a statement by the end man of a mlinstrel troupe 
would convulse the house! 

Truth and error are alike in all respects, so far as human 
beings are concerned, except in one thing, and that is the 
belief of most people that "truth is mighty and will pre- 



76 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

vail." Before any real progress can be made in any direc- 
tion error must be minimized, or eliminated. In all ages and 
in the present, truth has been battling with error and is still 
waging warfare. There is as much *'som'ethingness," if the 
use of a Christian Science word is permitted a pagan, in 
error as in truth. Error cannot be "nothing" so long as it 
prevails. Error is in every department of man's activities — 
mental, moral and physical. The history of every achieve- 
ment in the religious, political, moral and physical worlds 
shows that error, at timies, has a vitality equal to, if not 
greater than truth. If Christian Science is true in its rea- 
sonings and philosophies, then the "allness of truth" as man- 
kind sees, hears, touches, tastes, smells it to-day, is false. 
The subtleties and sophisms of error have misled and are 
misleading men and women every day — they have banked 
their all on allegations and logic as false as the falsity of 
Ananias and Sapphira. 

Page 454: 'Teach your student that the omnipotence of 
Truth, which illustrates the importance of error . . . 
That evil or matter has neither intelligence nor power is 
the great truth of absolute Christian Science.'' 

Without entering upon a discussion of the philosophy of 

evil in its relations to man in the Divine economy, it has 

co-existed with truth from the earliest recorded history to 

the present momtent. It has accompanied man in all his 

peregrinations up and down the earth, and has been a potent 

factor in all his thoughts and work. Error in thought, 

statement and action is not "impotent" and in no other form 

can it become cognizable to man. It commands "intelli- 

genc es" for its promotion, summons "powers" for its main- 

tainance. and thus becomes potent. It has tempted man from 

the symbolic serpent in the garden to this hour and will con- 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 77 



tinue to the trump of the archangel. 

Page 305 : "Because man is the reflection of his Maker he 
is not subject to birth, growth, maturity, decay. These 
mortal dreams are of human origin, not divine." 

''Man that is born of woman is of a few days and full of 
trouble. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down ; he 
fleeth as a shadow and continueth not." Job. xiv, i and 2. 

"Yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward." 
Job. V, 7. 

Page 273 : "There is no material truth. The physical 
senses can take no cognizance of God and Spirit, and Truth. 
. . . Deductions from material hypotheses are not scien- 
tiflc." 

"And the ear of the wise, seeketh knowledge." Prov. 
xviii, 15. 

"And what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the 
housetops." Matt, x, 2"^. 

'^Deductions from material hypotheses are not scientific." 

It is probably enough to say 'there is no such things as a 
material hypothesis. A hypothesis is a mere statement of 
an assumed proposition and cannot be material, or su5- 
stance. 

Presuming, however, the author meant hypotheses about 
material things, she is still seriously at fault. 

In deduction we begin with a general truth which is al- 
ready proven, or previously assumed, and seek to connect it 
with some particular case or class of objects, by a middle 
term known to be equally connected with both. For instance, 
Franklin, by induction, established the identity of lightning 
and electricity, and by deduction inferred that dwellings 
might be protected by lightning rods. 

Reasoning by induction we observe a sufficient number of 
individual facts, and by analogy, extend what is true of 



78 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

these to others of the same class, e. g., in the physical 
sciences the reasoning is inductive. 

Her proposition then will be, "deductions from hypotheses 
about material things are not scientific." 

If so the world would never have had a Franklin. A 
long line of inventors, including Elisha Gray, the actual in- 
ventor of the telephone, and Thomas A. Edison, would have 
been unheard of. These benefactors of mankind have re- 
peatedly "began with a general truth, already proven, or 
previously assumed, and sought to connect it with some par- 
ticular case, or class of objects ;" in other words, they have 
made deductions from hypotheses, or assumptions, about 
material things, and succeeded in solving their problems, 
or rather, the problems presented, thus adding to the sum 
of scientific knowledge. These propositions belong to the 
domain of science and are scientific. 

Page 319. *'It is not scientific to examine the body in or- 
der to ascertain if we are in health and learn our Hfe pros- 
pects, because this infringes on God's governmicnt." 

Bible : i Timothy, v, 8. "But if any provide not for his 
own and especially for those of his own house, he hath de- 
nied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." 

Ihere is no m junction in Holy Writ forbidding the ex- 
amination of the body. John says, in his third epistle, 1-2: 

"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest pros- 
per and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." 

"But a faithful ambassador is health.'' Prov. xiii-17. 

It appears from the Old and New Testament that health 
is of some value in human economy. Experience and ob- 
servation teach that the loss of health entails untold misery, 
and therefore it behooves every person to have a due regard 
for the health of himself and family. The first requisite of 
an aggregated population, is sanitation, and yet Mrs. Eddy 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 79 

pleads for less. There should be more and greater facili- 
lies for sanitation than now exist. Carelessness, parsimony, 
and sometimes ignorance, are manifest in the mortaility of 
municipalities. If the strictest heed is given in homes and 
habitations, there will be less sickness and fewer premature 
deaths. If an examination of the "body to ascertain if we 
are in health" is "unscientific" (anti-Christian Science) and 
an "infringement on God's government," then sanitation to 
preserve the body from disease and unhealthy conditions and 
untimely death, and preventive medicines and vaccination 
are "infringements upon God's government." 

If true, that an examination of the health and the pros- 
pects of longevity are an "infringement on God's govern- 
ment" then life insurance and fraternal benefit associations 
must be abandoned. Where in moral philosophy, or Chris- 
tian precept, can be found a hint to that effect? 

If wrong to sanitate and care for the body in order to 
avoid the necessity of "healing," why this book on Science 
and Health, and the strenuous efforts of all Christian Scien- 
tists to promote, or practice, the art of healing from a stubbed 
toe to the growing anew of an amputated hand ? If the Di- 
vine mind alone can heal and man cuts no figure in the deal, 
as Christian Science alleges, then it follows logically that He 
afflicts for the sole purpose of showing His skill at healing. 
Animals when injured and diseased, left to their own vo- 
lition, instinctively seek the herbs of the field for the curative 
properties, and avoid food. Has God done less for man? 
But why argue further. The fact is, as shown by all his- 
tory, that "God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to 
perform," and to work out His purposes. He has need for 
man and man has need for God, and only when man works 



80 The Fallacies of Christian Sciencet. 



in harmony with God, all things work together for good. 
Christian Science is at variance with God's teachings and 
purposes as revealed in the Scriptures, and is leading many 
men and women astray. 

Page 408: "A dislocation of the tarsal joint would pro- 
duce insanity as perceptible as that produced by congestion 
of the brain, were it not that mortal mind thinks this joint 
less intimately connected with the mind than is the brain." 

Insanitay is mental derangement. Mind is the function 
of brain. The tarsal joint has nothing whatever to do with 
the function of brain ; but congestion of the brain is a direct 
interference with the normal working condition of the brain, 
and brings about confusion of ideas, want of continuity of 
thought. A sane mind never ''thinks'' anything about the 
tarsal joint in connection with brain, because whether aware 
of the joint and its name, tarsal, or not, there is no connec- 
tion. 

Page 412 : **To prevent disease or to cure it, the power of 
the divine spirit mUst break this dream of the material 
senses. If you wish to heal by argument, find type of the 
ailment, get its name and array your mental plea against 
the physical. Argue with the patient (at first mentally, not 
audibly) that he has no disease and conform the argument 
so as to destroy the evidence of disease. The divine spirit 
must break this dream of the material sense." 

Jesus Christ, or any apostle, or any disciple, endowed 
with healing power, never intended that any "dream" had 
to be broken: they, none of them, ever said, or in- 
sisted, that disease is a "dream," that disease did not exist, 
that it is produced by Mortal Mind, nor did any enquiries 
about beliefs or disbelief have to be answered. They com- 
manded and the man "took up his bed and walked." They 
indulged in no "argument ;" they did not "find the type of 
the ailment," nor give the disease a "name," nor adduce nor 



The Fallacies op Christian Science. 81 

draw up any "plea." They commanded in open day with 
their ''eyes open" and the ailment subsided. 

Again, how is "the type of ailment' to be ascertained with- 
out diagnosis of one trained in medical art ? It is a known 
fact that Christian Science practitioners have no knowledge 
whatever of "types of ailment" as related to remedial agen- 
cies, and if they had these essential qualifications (according 
to the alleged revelations of Mrs. Eddy, page 319), they are 
forbidden to use their knowledge, as it would "be an in- 
fringement on God's government." 

Hov/ can an "argument be conducted mentally?" not audi- 
bly, so as to convince a person that he "has no disease." 

The entire quotation, above cited, implies that some one 
"has . . . disease,^' and the whole process looking to 
cure, is to "argue that he has no disease, . . . so as to 
destroy the evidence of disease." 

If he has no disease, why "hunt for the type of the ail- 
ment," when there can be no evidence of disease, and if there 
be no evidence of disease, then he has no disease. 

If a person "dreams" that he has disease,, the impression 
will vanish upon his awakening. If when he wakens from 
his dreams and when in full possession and light of his ma- 
terial senses, he still insists upon having disease, when he 
has none, then he is insane. 

The style of argument set out in the paragraph quoted 
above is very frequent in "Science and Health." 

Page 209 : Christian Science denies the existence of mat- 
ter persistently in one place and as positively and plainly im- 
plies its existence in another. For example : 

"Material substances, or mundane formations, astronom- 
ical calculations, and all the paraphernalia of speculative 
theories, based on the hypotheses of material law or life and 



82 The Fallacies of Christian Sciencf* 



intelligence resident in matter, will ultimately vanish, swal- 
lowed up in the infinite calculus of Spirit/^ 

No sane person speaks of matter .having intelligence. 
Matter has properties which act or develop in accord with 
law of their being. 

It matters not what may eventually become of matter; we 
may rightly theorize and differ, and predicate theories on 
our calculations and act upon the conclusions, and concede 
the ultimate dissolution "swallowed up in the infinite calcu- 
lus of spirit" which certainly can not affect the present sta- 
tus, nor change our relations to it. 

Christian Science says : "You say 'Toil fatigues me,' but 
what is this to me, which is tired and so speaks? Without 
mind could the muscles be tired?" 

The babe tires lying in one position, it becomes restless 
without walcing. The prudent m.other turns her babe over, 
pulls down its nightie and the child is quiet and content. 

The physiological fact is, the muscles become tired from 
being in one position ; this condition is carried by the nerves 
to the brain, and at once nature essays to relieve the ten- 
sion. There being no mind awake to direct the effort for re- 
lief, or being too feeble to effect the desired change, the 
mother lovingly assists in the struggle of nature to improve 
the situation. 

Resuming : "Do the muscles talk or do you talk to them ? 
Matter is non-intelligent (no one claims otherwise). Mortal 
Mind does the false talking, and that which affirms weari- 
ness made that weariness.'' 

What confusion of rational thought! What nonsense! 
The muscles tire from over-exertion ; the condition of weari- 
ness is communicated to the brain, and the vocal organs may, 
or may not, give expression to man's situation. The mind 
did not cause the weariness, but simply notes the conditions 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 



which exist in other parts of the human organism. 

Page 230: **We think we are healed when a disease dis- 
appears, though it is Hable to reappear; but we are never 
thoroughly healed until the liability is removed." 

No one, not even a Christian Scientist, will deny that the 
persons Christ and the apostles and the disciples healed were 
"thoroughly healed,'' but there was no guaranty of immun- 
ity ever after. 

Mrs. Eddy claims that persons are not cured unless per- 
manently relieved of the ailment. Some months ago it was 
announced with a blare of Christian Science trumpets that 
George Tincher, a well known and popular citizen of To- 
peka, had been cured of kidney troubles and consequent heart 
weakness. The ''miracle" (for it was no less, if true) was a 
topic for discussion at every hearthstone in the city. George 
himself was persuaded that he had at last found relief from 
a malady which the human physicians pronounced incurable. 
In a short time he was again stricken and died of the iden- 
tical disease of which Christian Science had cured (?) him. 
Every Christian Science mouth has been hermetically sealed 
since the sad event. Suppression of the details of the inci- 
dent was the evident policy among that cult. 

As a rule persons are immune from measles, mumps, 
chicken-pox after the first attack. The same rule holds with 
smallpox and yellow fever ; but there have been exceptions. 

A person is more liable to erysipelas after the first attack. 

Of some diseases the person attacked are never healed, 
while others are immune from certain diseases by reason of 
their occupation, or habitat. 

Page 230: "According to Holy Writ the sick are never 
healed by drugs, hygiene or other material methods." 
What an absurd proposition ! Thousands of instances ev- 



84 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 



ery day attest its falsity. Holy Writ does not intimate such 

a thing, on the contrary says : 

"And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the 
nations." Again, Paul said to Timothy, when perhaps 
suffering from the infirmity of a weak stomach, occasioned 
by frequent changes of water, "Drink no longer water, but 
use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and for thine in- 
firmities.'' I Timothy, v, 23. 

Such was Paul's prescription for a disordered stomach. 

Page 254 : "During the sensual ages, absolute Christian 
Science may not be achieved prior to the change called 
death ; for what we do not understand, we have not the right 
to judge." 

Mrs. Eddy's Book, "Science and Health, or Key to the 
Scriptures,'' pretends to unlock the mysteries of Divine law 
to the children of men. Christian Science is a revelation to 
Mrs. Eddy — as che claims — and yet she tells us it "may not 
be achieved prior to the change called death" and this be- 
cause of the "sensual ages." 

The natural man is built on sensual lines and the age will 
never come when he will be relieved of sensuality. If so. 
Christian Science can never be "achieved." On the contrary 
Christianity teaches man the due control of his sensual na- 
ture and promises nothing after death except everlasting life 
with the Father, or condemnation. 

If "absolute Christian Science" may not be "achieved" un- 
til after death, what will that amount to? There will be 
nothing to heal over there ! 

The above quotation, like a number of instances in the 
book, is a mere hedging proposition. If you say you can- 
not understand her theory, then she tells you you "have 
not a right to judge." Concede this, arguendo, but if you 
say I do understand your philosophy, but I disbelieve it, she 
replies, You must read and study Christian Science, "spir- 



The Fallacies of Chribtian Science. 85 

itually."' Christ addressed man's intellect; He appealed to 
his reason and judgment and illustrated His theories by rea- 
sonings and parables, so plain and simple that "the wayfar- 
ing man though a fool need not err therein." 

There are many people who have fairly good judgment 
about the ordinary affairs of life, but when questions and 
issues are at the bar and demand for their solution, thought, 
judgment, discrimination, they are simply hors dti combat. 
Such people are liable to be led by sentiment, temperament, 
and the further they go the more profoundly they are in- 
volved in mere sentimentalism. Oftentimes such people 
will express opinions which astound their most ardent ad- 
mirers. A prominent gentleman of this city, whom every 
one likes who knows him, went before the board of educa- 
tion and requested the excuse of his daughter in the High 
School from the study of physiology, giving as a reason that 
they were Christian Scientists and did not believe in the 
study of the body. 

Page 175 : *'It is profane to fancy that the perfume 01 
clover and the breath of new-mown hay may cause glandu- 
lar inflammation, sneezing and nasal pangs." 

No 'ntelligent person ever had such a "fancv'" 

The pollen of rag-weed is supposed to be the progenitor 
of hay-fever. It is a weed that follows civilization and 
grows upon poor ground. It is never found on wild land. 

How about poison ivy? which poisons the flesh of many 
people who go near it, but do not touch it. In point of cre- 
ative genius, and the Divine purpose, what difference is 
there between rag-weed, poison ivy, hay and clover? The 
distinction man makes is one of aesthetic taste, based upon 
the material senses — sight and smelling and utility. Ac- 
cording to Christian Science it is mortal mind that produces 



86 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 



the effects observed upon one who is affected by poison ivy. 
But no one is poisoned by it unless near it, no matter what 
they think or know of its effects upon them'. If they keep 
away from it, they are immune. 

Page 176: "Truth handles the most malignant conta- 
gion with perfect assurance." 

What contagion has ever been assuaged by Christian Sci- 
ence ? What truth ? Medical Truth and its hand maiden — 
sanitation — have ever been the sole reliance of mankind 
and these have brought better and better conditions, world 
around, until the ''Scourges of God" are known only to his- 
tory. 

The United States is getting considerable credit for the 
improvement in the sanitary condition of the Isthmus of 
Panama. The Mexican Investor says : 'Tn 1882, the sec- 
ond year of the French work on the canal, the death rate 
was 112 per 1,000, and the French had a force of only 1,900 
men. In August, 1905, the second year of American occu- 
pancy, with a force of 12,000 men, there were only eight 
deaths — two-thirds of a man to every one thousand. The 
death rate has been sent down from 112 to 8 by vigilant 
sanitary precautions. When the improvements now under 
way are completed, there will be a still further improvement 
in the health of the Isthmus. 

Page 177: "Human mind produces what is termed 
organic disease as certainly as it produces hysteria. I have 
demonstrated this beyond all cavil." 

The only proof of this in all the seven hundred pages of 
Science and Health, or Key to the Scriptures, isi the asser- 
tion of Mrs. Eddy. A proposition that overthrows philo- 
sophy to such an extent, should be demonstrated fully step 
by step. But not a word is offered. Nor is there any proof 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 87 



of the assertion that hysteria is produced by the "human 
mind." Hysteria is a mental condition, but that mjind begat 
the condition denominated hysteria is another and entirely 
different question. Give us the proof "beyond all cavil," 
Mrs. Eddy ! 

Page 199: "The trip-hammer is not increased in size by 
exercise. Why not, since muscles are as material as wooq 
or iron. Because no body believes that mind is producing 
that result on the hammer." 

Yes, wood, iron and muscles are matter — material things, 
Wood and iron, when incorporated into and become com- 
ponent parts of a trip-hammer are inanimate matter and sub- 
ject to the mind of man. Muscles, living, are animate mat- 
ter, and man has observed, and noted his observation, that 
exercise strengthens and causes it to increase in size, 
whether it be the muscle of a blacksmith or a gymnast. Such 
nonsense as the above quotation, is on nearly every page of 
the 700 pages of "Science and Health, or Key to the Scrip- 
tures." 

Page 425: "If the case to be mentally treated is con- 
sumption, take up the leading points included (according 
to belief) in this disease, show that it is not inherited ; that 
inflammation, tubercles, hemorrhage and decomposition are 
beliefs, images of mortal thought superimposed upon the 
body ; that they are not the truth of man ; that they should 
be treated as error, and put out of the thought. Then these 
ills will disappear." 

We are taught in Mrs. Eddy's book that the ancient Chris- 
tians had the power to heal, but that the art was lost. That 
she had a revelation and the power was restored through 
Christian Science. Christ healed with a command, "Take up 
thy bed and walk'^ — "stretch forth thine arm" — "Hear" — 
"speak" — "see" — "be restored," etc. Evidently an omnipo- 
tent power was being exercised through possession or en- 
dowment. There was no treatment, no changing of beliefs, 



88 The Fallacies of Chribtian Science. 

no effort to teach a new philosophy about disease to those 
who had been taught that the ''sins of the father," etc. So 
with the apostles and others who healed. If a person had 
a hemorrhage, he knew it ; he also knew that no "belief of 
his, one way or the other, brought it on, and no one of the 
early Christian healers knew or cared so far as the record 
shows, what his beliefs were. So it is evident that Mrs. 
Eddy plagiarized, or conceived of, some methods of treat- 
ing some human ailments (by hypnosis, suggestion, or other 
scheme) and in order to make her philosophy appear plaus- 
ible, she must claim a direct revelation to her, of which 
there is aboslutely no proofs aside from her assertions. 

But there is proof to the contrary, else God has made two 
revelations at antipodes with each other. If scripture is 
true, then Eddy's book and its philosophy cannot be true. 
If Christ taught truly, then Eddy is a false teacher of whom 
the scriptures predict. 

Page 414: *'The treatment of insanity is especially in- 
teresting. However obstinate the case, it yields more nat- 
urally than most diseases to the salutary action of truth, 
which counteracts error." 

Why ''truth" should be more potent in the worst malady 
that can befall mankind, is not shown. Few cases of alleged 
cures by Christian Science are of record, but numerous in- 
stances can be cited of persons deranged by the study of 
Christian Science. If so potent in insanity, why, in all the 
one hundred pages of Mrs. Eddy's book, no case of insanity 
is cited as a "fruitage'' of Christian Science. 

If "truth" is so "salutary" in the direst of all mxaladies, 
while State Hospitals for the insane only claim 25 to 35 per 
cent of those who enter as "discharged cured," the kind of 
"truth," the details of its application should be given. It is 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 89 



certain if some high-toned, honorable physician should dis- 
cover some ''truth" which would sensibly improve many 
cases of insanity and cure a good percentage, the details of 
such a boon to humanity would be hung upon the outer 
walls. 

The matter is not wholly dark, for Mrs. Eddy, in the same 
connection, says : 

"The arguments to be used in curing insanity are the same 
as in other diseases; namely, the impossibility that matter, 
brain, can control, or derange mind; can suffer or cause 
sufifering; also the fact that "Truth" (the capital letter is 
Mrs. Eddy's, which means abstract truth as distinguished 
from any given truth), can establish a healthy state, guide 
and govern mortal mind or the thought of the patient, and 
destroy all error, whether it is called dementia, dysentery, or 
any other discord." 

Insanity is peculiar. In the trial of one hundred cases of 
alleged insanity, while probate judge of Shawnee County, 
Kansas, no two cases were alike. Of these ninety-nine were 
found insane, simply because no action was brought, un- 
less upon a careful examination, pro and con, the charge 
could be sustained. Ordinarily, the more varied the nature 
of a disease, the more difficult to find a specific remedy. But 
here is a malady as varied as the individuals attacked, with 
"Truth" as an abstraction, suggested by Christian Science as 
a remedy. An insane person invariably asserts that he is 
not, but those about him are, insane. Seeing things which 
no one else sees, imagining vain things, hearing sounds 
which are not, acting strangely, change of habit, are some 
of the salient evidences of mental "discord." It might be a 
serious question which was the more afflicted with mental 
derangement — the one who would argue with an insane per- 
son, "the impossibility that matter, brain, can control or de- 
range mind'' — or the one who was so demented as to respond 



90 The Fallacies of Christian Science. 

to sucli an argument, with a cold, wild-eyed stare. To argue 
with an insane person is futile. Matter, brain, can be 
so injured, so gorged with blood, so inflamed, so addled 
with alcohol, as to derange the brain function, mind. These 
are the common experiences and observations of men and 
women with eyes to see and ears to hear, and the creative 
genius has certainly not designed all the adaptabilities in 
the universe for the purpose of deceiving man whom He has 
endowed with five senses, as Christian Science argues. 

Christian Science says : "Mortal mind is error." If so, a 
deranged ''Mortal mind" is the opposite of ''error" — correct. 
Then why any argument to a deranged "Mortal mind" 
which is already correct? 

On the same page — ^414 — Christian Science says : "Mat- 
ter cannot be inflamed. Inflammation is fear, an excited 
state of mortals that is not normal." 

If "there is no matter," as alleged in this book, then "mat- 
ter can not be inflamed." because nothing is non-inflamable. 
But supposing she means what she says, "Matter cannot be 
inflamed,'' it is replied there are physical conditions in mor- 
tals which they call, to distinguish from other conditions, 
"inflammation," which result from injuries, other diseases, 
organic obstructions, exposures, contagion, infection, with- 
out the element of "fear" entering into the cause at any time 
during the progress of the inflammation. A person suddenly 
feels a sharp pain in the thumb, a felon develops and in- 
flammation involves the whole hand. No mental process 
antedated the first stinging sensation. He suffers intensely, 
not in mind, but in his finger, hand, and sympathetically in 
his arm, but he is a strong, rugged, fearless character, and 
at no time is he conscious of fear. On the contrary, his 
hope is buoyant with promise of speedy recovery. Inflam- 



The Fallacies of Christian Science. 91 

mation is a physical condition of matter, fear is a state of 
mind. How can physical be mental or vice versa? 

Judge Hanna, in a lecture on Christian Science, in Craw- 
ford's Opera House, in Topeka, lauded Mrs. Eddy and her 
book to the exhaustion of panegyric, branched off on the 
healing art, and many other things, and ridiculed the idea of 
giving medicine to cure mental trouble. Brain disorder 
arises from many causes. Nothing is better attested than 
the efficacy of absolute rest, careful dieting, sanitation, medi- 
cines to quiet the nerves and purify and make good blood, 
as remedial agencies for restoring sanity. Cranial surgery 
often cures mental disorders occasioned by injuries and dis- 
eases. Persons congenitally deranged are improved by early 
training and surgery. Man endowed by His Creator with 
the investigative faculty has given time and attention to 
these crowning ills of life and his efforts have been rewarded 
with marvelous success. There are many incurables, de- 
mented, melancholy, murderous, suicidal, violent, raging 
persons, whom nothing but heavily barred windows, padded 
walls, straight- jackets and belts, and sometimes chains can 
check and restrain. Such have the sympathy and pity of all 
right-minded men and women. Christian Science says: 
"However obstinate the case, it yields more naturally than 
most diseases to the salutary action of Truth, which counter- 
acts error." Bald, bold nonsence ! 

ii ii ii 



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